START fast, put on a show, win the game and send the fans home happy.
It might sound like the ideal plan every week, but Swindon Town head coach Scott Lindsey believes it is especially important for his team to dominate from the get-go against Crewe Alexandra on Saturday.
Town have conceded in the first, ninth, and 11th minutes, respectively, in a win against Mansfield Town, a 1-1 draw with Tranmere Rovers, and a 4-0 FA Cup defeat to Stockport County in recent weeks.
Therefore, in a game against a Crewe team that Lindsey said “rode their luck” in wins against Leyton Orient and Colchester United, the Town boss is keen to see his players come out of the traps fast.
He said: “The start is the most important thing for us on Saturday. We’ve conceded inside the first 10 minutes in each of the past three games, so that’s something we want to put right.
“We want to be the team that’s on the front foot and creating chances and scoring goals within the first 10 minutes. That’s been something that we’ve spoken about all week.
“Crewe have had two really good results against Leyton Orient and Colchester. But I think, in both games, they rode their luck. Colchester had some really, really good chances, as did Orient.
“But it’s a great start for Lee Bell, and they’ll be riding that crest of a wave. We’ve got to make sure we get our own house in order.”
Once a confident start has been secured, Lindsey said Town’s next goal will be to win the game in an attractive and entertaining manner.
The Swindon head coach revealed he thinks his team has sometimes been a touch boring in a handful of games this season but insists everyone is working hard to ensure it never happens again.
He said: “The spectacle is just as important as the result, for me. We want to play a brand of football where the fans are happy, and we’re dominant with our possession.
“I think there is a fine line between being dominant and being boring, and I think we’ve sometimes got that wrong. Not through the want of trying, but through circumstance of what an opposition has put against us.
“We want to be in control, and in most games we’ve had that. Have we scored enough goals to excite the crowd? Probably not. Have we attacked the opposition as much as possible? Probably not, but we’re working really hard to create that.”
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