Swindon 1, West Brom 0: Chris Lepkowski's pre-season report

Jul 29 2009 by Christopher Lepkowski, Birmingham Mail

IF IT’S any consolation to Albion fans then it must surely be that this is still pre-season and no points are at stake.

The Baggies produced their most underwhelming display of the summer and underlined the importance of the next 10 days or so before the big kick-off against Newcastle.

In fairness to Roberto Di Matteo’s side it was devoid of its several likely first-team starters against Newcastle – Carson, Olsson, Barnett, Greening, Cech, Brunt, Moore for instance – but the poor defending didn’t mask the fact that Albion still have work to do on the training ground.

Albion’s defence was, at times, as confusing as the Magic Roundabout situated outside the County Ground. Too many free headers were afforded to Town’s physical players.

Abdoulaye Meite and Shelton Martis struggled, while Gianni Zuiverloon was simply over-run and over-powered on his side of the pitch.

Dwayne Samuels put in a useful shift but all too often Albion allowed too many crosses into the box and, all too often, they didn’t defend them.

Swindon had six free headers before the first half was out and one of those, scored by Gordon Greer, ensured victory for the League One club.

Yet Albion could have been ahead inside the opening half-a-minute when ex-Swindon man Simon Cox found Robert Koren, who played in Craig Beattie.

The Scotland international ran towards goal but was denied by David Lucas.

Spotting Dean Kiely off his line, Paynter curled his shot but if flew just wide of the left-hand post.

The Wiltshire side hit the target on 33 minutes. Gordon Greer made a mockery of Albion’s marking to steer an excellent header past Dean Kiely from Anthony McNamee’s corner. Albion made changes at half-time with Borja Valero, the only non-starter of pre-season so far, replacing Koren and Luke Barnett coming on for Samuels.

But Albion’s deficiencies at the back remained with Morrison rising about Meite for another goalbound header on 57 minutes. Kiely reacting quickly to prevent the goal.

Cox had his first real opportunity to score, some 12 minutes from the end. It drifted just wide.

SWINDON (4-4-2): Lucas, Amankwaah, Greer, Morrison, Jean-Francois, O’Brien, Douglas, Timlin, McNamee, Paynter, Ndebe-Nlome. Subs: Smith (gk), Kennedy, Ifil, McGovern, Thompson, Macklin, Easton, Marshall, Cuthbert.

ALBION (4-4-2): Kiely, Zuiverloon, Meite, Martis, Samuels, Koren, Dorrans, Mulumbu, Teixeira, Beattie, Cox. Subs: Carson (gk), Brunt, Barnett, Greening, Olsson, Valero, Moore, Cech.