HIGHLY ENTERTAINING GAME IN THE RAIN WITH THE CENTURIONS HANGING ON TO SNATCH A DRAW AGAINST A SLICK SWINDON TOWN

Cirencester Town 3

Swindon Town 3

Persistent rain throughout the day obviously severely affected the attendance but those who chose not to come missed a treat. With Swindon Town still looking to resolve some selection options in attack and the Cirencester Town squad now all playing for their places after their low key and frankly disappointing performances on the previous Saturday, this was always going to be a much more full on match. Cirencester were lucky to scramble a draw but deserve credit for staying in this match all the way to the end of a long 90 minutes.

Swindon Town fielded nine of their (younger) first team squad plus playing a selection of front line triallists, while Cirencester sprung a surprise with former favourite Jody Bevan starting up front flanked by Carl Brown. Chris Williams, absent on Saturday, this time took a deep central midfield berth with Jamie Reid and Chris Thompson in front of him.

In another surprise, Max Etheridge (who has had an exemplary pre-season) got the nod with a wide midfield role in front of his brother Tom on the left. The Ciren bench was packed with experience and it was obvious there were going to be many substitutions on both sides.

After a tentative opening as Swindon probed and Ciren coped this very soon became a high tempo contest with both teams taking it seriously. For Swindon Callum Kennedy at left wing back and Nathan Thompson at right wing back both showed the expected good first touch and even more important the effective, accurate pass upfield to have their respective wide men Mark Marshall and Lloyd Macklin collecting, passing and moving. They were putting pressure on the Ciren back line.

The Ciren defence just about contained them, though both Zak Westlake and Egg Etheridge had to do a lot of scampering as their wingers kept on the move and showing constantly for the ball. With Craig Easton far an away the class act on the pitch, it looked ominously as if The Robins would sweep Ciren away. Lyndon Tomkins and Lee Stevens were faced with a bewildering interchange of positions by Dean McDonald and Yan Klukowski but they just about held them.

To their credit when they did get a moment on the ball both of them tried to find their own men with passes out rather than long booted clearances. Jody Bevan has upped his game even more since his season ending injury two years ago – mobile, doing well to get to the ball in front of the imposing and effective Scott Cuthburt, he was managing to find Max Etheridge and Browner often enough to keep Ciren possession upfield.

But it was noticeable not only that Swindon were reading the play quicker and better than Ciren, they were controlling and moving the ball more cutely when they got the ball back. The more Swindon cranked up the pace, the more Cirencester responded with effort of their own. Both Jamie Reid and Chris Williams were visibly upping their game to match them. Both were winning their share of loose balls and both were looking up and spreading the ball to a player in space with time to look up and make the next pass.

Not every move worked – the pace of the pitch, the weight on the pass and the continuous rain made a good first touch difficult and, each time, Swindon were in and winning the ball back. On 20 minutes the Ciren dike broke. Lyndon Tomkins just managed to get to a ball played with malign intent by the alert Easton to pierce the back line to set McDonald free.

With the sturdy little forward standing firm and giving Tomkins the full benefit of his no more than 80 kilos of muscle and bone, the defender could do no more than scoop the ball away to the left of his penalty area. Nathan Thompson pounced, immediately collected and freed Macklin on the right. With the defence pulled all over the shop by the changing angles, the speedy winger simply sped past Egg and delivered an undefendable cross to the far post.

Mark Marshall had got on the blindside of Zak Westlake, not surprising given the way the ball had been pinging around, and nodded unselfishly back inside. McDonald pounced and as the defenders desperately blocked the ball fell loose to Yan Klukowski who did what any sensible triallist would do and banged the gift into the back of the net.

There had been an air of inevitability about the way Swindon had upped their game. While the noisy Robins fans celebrated there was indeed a glum silence in the rest of the ground. Would this be another Slimbridge/Shrivenham display tonight? The omens were not good when Swindon started to slick the ball crisply all over the pitch, the Ciren defenders began just to get rid as the pressure rose and the midfield became stranded with Chris Thompson flailing gamely but vainly to keep tabs on the effervescent Easton.

Mr Hughes’ gloom would not have been lifted when Carl Brown went down after a crunching tackle by Sean Morrison as he tried a spin inside the box and was nailed, fairly. He was down for a long time and limped off minutes later with what looked very much like a recurrence of the knee injury that wrecked the end of his season last year. George Boon was on, going on the left with Max Etheridge taking Browners slot wide right of the always mobile Bevan.

Both Jamie Reid and Chris Williams showed they are made from the right stuff and very commendably regained their poise within minutes of the onslaught starting. Calmly and carefully finding both Max and George with some well placed and paced passes, Ciren came back to an even keel and threatened the edge of the Swindon box with a series of thrusts. Cuthbert and Morrison are doughty defenders and managed to get a block on to stop Bevan and Boon making more of openings that were being created.

It wasn’t all Swindon by any means, with Jamie Reid, Tomkins and Bevan all having chances, though failing to test Swindon’s latest signing, Polish U21 keeper Jakub Jesionowski watching their efforts sail wide. At the other end Klukowski (twice) and Craig Easton were both denied by blood and guts blocks from Lee Stevens and Lyndon Tomkins as the Ciren defence also got themselves back up together.

In the second period, Swindon replaced both their central defenders with the youngsters Will Evans and Elliot Knight and that inevitably gave Ciren a little bit more space and time to keep their attacks going. Cirencester were still positive and played some nice stuff of their own with Max Etheridge, in particular, enjoying himself against still classy opposition.

Jody Bevan was playing intelligently, always going up to offer but when the defence stepped up making sure he was not stranded offside and getting himself back into the space between the defender and the ball. Ciren were keeping possession, a welcome contrast to some of the chicken with their heads off play we had seen in some pre-season matches.

One sublime early move involving Reid and Etheridge resulted in the ball coming to Chris Thompson on the edge of the box. His finish must have disappointed him considering the amount of time and space that had been created for him after Boon had found him with the final pass. Then the game stepped up a gear for a helter skelter two minutes around the hour mark, just after Ciren made a raft of substitutions with Nick Dunn coming into midfield and Chris Williams slotting in at right wing back to replace Zak..

As Ciren adjusted Swindon took advantage but Matt Bath pulled off a fine double save from Easton and Lloyd Macklin to keep his team in the game. And Ciren went off and scored when they got the ball down the other end. A nice one-two between fellow substitutes Scott Griffin and Jason Welsh freed the lively George Boon on the left. He neatly slotted the ball back inside to Jason Welsh.

He had space and sent in a firm shot that Jesionowski did well to keep out at full length. But he could only tip the ball out to the predatory Griff, on his toes and following up, and his block on that shot had the ball bouncing off the inside of the post for George Boon, also alert and on his toes, to get there in front of Nathan Thompson to tap home.

Ciren’s celebrations were stuffed back down their throats when within the same minute a lovely series of passes through the middle and up the left ended with Dean McDonald timing his run to perfection to get the jump inside on Chris Williams off yet another perfect set up pass from Easton. He was away, with both the alert and covering Lyndon Tomkins and Lee Stevens too far away to do anything about it.

And Dean McDonald showed the difference between the standard of football. On the angle of the box, way before the cover could close him down, his shot was not only arrow accurate for just inside the near post but with far too much venom and it smacked into the net even as Matt Bath was down and across to try and stop it. Good goal, though I wonder if a League One defence would be split as easily as was Ciren's.

For the next 20 minutes Ciren were pummelled as Swindon’s superior class and fitness began to tell. Matt Bath had two sessions of point blank save practice and did it well, with his defenders, Lee Stevens in particular, keeping themselves fully focussed and clearing the ball before Klukowski had even a moment to think about sniffing. Efthymides should have cracked in the next goal when another lovely move gave him time and space on the edge of the box but he was hit hard by Stevens and Matt Bath did the rest with a safe collect on his knees by the post. Good save.

After periods of trying to influence the substitutions the Swindon fans got their reward, so to speak, when local lad Jordi Record much to the delight of his own fan club in the stands came on just as Lee Stevens was off to be replaced by Craig Curtis. They both had an adventurous 20 minute spell.

Jordan Record very soon had a half chance, running into space 35 yards out and taking advantage of a misplaced pass from the tiring Chris Thompson. Very smartly, he lifted his shot in, with Matt Bath back pedalling in vain only for the ball to smack onto the bar and over. Good vision and movement and on 80 minutes Jordi Record made it 3-1 to The Robins with a nice turn and strike after yet more high speed passes, this time up the right, had turned the Ciren defence inside out.

The away fans had an enjoyable cameo when Swindon fan Dave Marsh made an appearance, loping on to fill the right flank spot and relieving Egg from the tousing he had been manfully standing up to from the very sprightly Lloyd Macklin. Within a minute Marsh had winded himself and stayed on the deck when he went for a ball with Egg on the touchline and got the standard all out 'Egg in the last minutes of a match' power tackle.

What even the home fans didn’t expect to see was Ciren once more manfully getting themselves back into the game. James Guthrie had replaced the weary Chris Thompson, still working his way back to match fitness, and with Jamie Reid now sometimes popping up as a makeshift extra centre back Nick Dean not only took responsibility for making himself available for the midfield out ball but had a 10 minute patch when every one of his passes hit the target.

Suddenly, the Swindon bench were anxious, as their young back line started to fray. And on 88 minutes, after vainly trying to find and keep space The Griff once again raced for and won possession from a neat Dean - Boon interchange of passes into the right side of the box. His jinking and turn flummoxed young Elliot Knight into a mistimed challenge and Mr Hamilton was there to wave away the protests and Scott Griffin to put the ball on the spot and score decisively.

It looked and felt like a consolation but there was Egg still in his 'this match has time to go so I'm not letting up' mood being matched by Craig Curtis reflecting his own footballing education and making sure his passes out of defence still found a target. Chris Williams, who had so far played in two and a half positions, was now offering as an out and out wing back every time there was Ciren possession with George Boon popping up to receive the ball in space from him.

It was not playing out the game to hold the win situation that Swindon wanted but they were no longer in control. Though there was really no reason for the Polish keeper on 90 minutes allowing a tame shot to squirm through his legs for a howler of an equaliser.

James Guthrie had, typically of the way he plays, backed up on the blindside then thrown himself full stretch and creeping in ahead of Nathan Thompson to connect with a loose ball squirting out to the left after Jason Welsh and Griffin had had shots blocked on the edge of the box. Mr Jesionowski will have been less than chuffed with his horrible lapse and I guess he will have improved his English quite a lot by the time the coaches had finished their post match chat.

What started out as possibly a pre-season going through the motions fixture had cranked up into an entertaining and thought provoking match for both managements. Mr Burns will no doubt have some interesting conclusions to report back to Mr Wilson at The County Ground and no doubt the final few places in the Swindon Town squad will now be keenly debated as the season starts.

Mr Hughes through his series of pre-season games has seen a range of fair to middling, to flashes of good, to downright abject performances [sometimes from the same player (: (:] He will now be sorting out his own list. I hope he can persuade the Chair and committee that Max should be the sole Hartpury student on it, given the lad constantly shows he is reaching the level required and when Hartpury do whistle he can maybe be spared for them.

Guessing that eight slots are filled that leaves him with eight more or so to make his decision on. I wonder how many players will think it through and realise that only clubs that are determined to go bust will pay the levels that were paid just a couple of years ago.

We shall see but, while I'm now off to sweaty Kansas for a couple of weeks or so, IMHO we do have a set of players who have once again shown that when it really counts they can play good togger and enjoy it.

Cirencester: Matt Bath, Zak Westlake (Nick Dunn, 58), Tom Etheridge, Lyndon Tomkins, Jamie Reid (capt), Lee Stevens (Craig Curtis, 71), Chris Thompson (James Guthrie, 77), Chris Williams, Carl Brown (George Boon 26), Jody Bevan (Jason Welsh, 58), Max Etheridge (Scott Griffin, 58).

Swindon (with their 09-10 squad number shown for confirmed First Team players): Jakub Jesionowski 26, Nathan Thompson 25 , Callum Kennedy 17, Craig Easton 10 (c), Sean Morrison 14 (Will Evans, 45), Scott Cuthbert 2 (Elliott Knight, 45), Lloyd Macklin 22 (Dave Marsh, 81), Panicos Efthymides (Mark Hartman, 71), Yan Klukowski, Dean McDonald (Jordan Record, 71), Mark Marshall 25 (Bradley Clark, 53).

Ref: Mr I Hamilton, Cheltenham Marked his final match before he now moves on to Referee Development by seeing a clear penalty and blowing his whistle ... as The Griff very cheekily pointed out to him, with a big grin after he had buried the opportunity, that was the first time he'd ever awarded a penalty to us in many, many games here over the years!

He and his very effective linos controlled the match well, given the slippery conditions, and were on hand and working as a team to keep the play flowing while at the same time in position to make clear decisions. The teams rewarded them by never letting what was a full on contest get out of hand. What a contrast to the confusion that had reigned on the previous Saturday, eh?

Att: 285 No doubt a very large number of people took one look at the sky, and said not tonight.

MoM: did not take a poll; had too much to do after the game. I can't fault any player for giving less than his all but was impressed that, against a very slick Swindon squad, the defenders and midfield showed well. Impressed with Chris Williams' versatile and calm display, Jody's cute positioning and very much improved timing of his runs but for me Jamie Reid (though still way behind the dominant person on the pitch, Craig Easton) was the top dog tonight for Ciren.

Many thanks to The Wilts & Glos Standard both for the photos and for the sequence and timing of the events in this report. I have the luxury of not having linage limits imposed by scary sub editors so can waft more words on my record of what I saw.