AFTER Jody Morris recently took charge of his 10th game as Swindon Town head coach, Adver Sport shares its early verdict on the west-Londoner’s stint so far.

Although it did take Morris four games to pick up his first win, allowances could be made in the defeats prior to the win at Salford City.

Against Newport County, Rushian Hepburn-Murphy’s 15th-minute red card did his new boss no favours and the game plan was almost immediately tossed out of the window.

Meanwhile, the Doncaster performance was decent with green shoots of Morris’ preferred style emerging prior to a lapse in concentration which cost Town the game.

Similarly, the first hour against Sutton saw the Robins in control and deservedly in front, only for a lack of experience (and a shocking refereeing decision) to hurt them in the end with two late goals.

And while Salford was certainly not pretty, some rare resilience was on display and lessons appeared to have been learned – except for in the case of Saidou Khan, who followed Hepburn-Murphy in reacting to provocation unnecessarily and hurting his team further down the line.

After a comfortable home win against Harrogate Town, Swindon were full value for a point against the league leaders despite Morris being forced into a handful of quirky selections due to injuries. The only downside was a pattern of conceding from corners being born.

Swindon conceded twice from set-pieces as they lost to Carlisle United at home, a result which appeared to signal the beginning of the end in terms of the club’s play-off chances.

Morris believes his side struggles to compete defensively at corners, therefore setting up zonally gives Town the best chance of avoiding goals being shipped.

While that may be true, the simple fact that players aren’t willing to attack crosses has not helped the controversial tactic.

A soulless 0-0 draw against Walsall exposed the concerning lack of attacking flair in Morris’ squad, and foundations for a home defeat by Stockport County were laid inside the first minute when the team were not set up properly, leading to Jacob Wakeling’s red card after 38 seconds.

Some may say the team should have organised themselves more efficiently from the start, but it could also be argued that Morris needs to do more positional work with his squad to prevent that from happening.

The ninth game in the sequence – the 4-4 draw at Rochdale – produced the only real concern so far from a tactical point of view. With the game finely poised at the break, Morris opted to switch from four at the back to five in order to make the team more solid.

Town conceded two goals in both halves. With the season fading into obscurity and Swindon up against the worst team in the EFL, surely – even with selection issues – would you not back your team to try and simply ‘out-punch’ Rochdale rather than attempting to lean on a facet of your game which clearly has huge flaws at the moment?

Overall, in this first 10-game stretch, Morris has shown more than enough to signal a potential repeat of Richie Wellens’ time in charge. The first half season under the Mancunian was extremely tough to watch at times before he turned it around in the summer – in part through excellent recruitment – and Swindon went on to win League Two.

If Morris finds himself with an improved squad next season, I fully expect Town to be competing for a top-three spot.