Mark Kennedy said that Swindon Town did not play an “EFL brand of football” during their 4-0 home loss against Walsall.

Swindon were embarrassed during their first home game of the season as two goals on either side of half time saw them experience their worst home league defeat since a 5-0 defeat against Luton Town on Boxing Day 2017.

Kennedy said that one of the key issues with the performance was that Swindon did not do the things you need to do in senior football to give yourself a chance in the game.

 

 

He said: “Football is an in and out of possession game and we have got good footballers who can play good football, and I think our balance of playing good football and EFL football was completely lopsided.

“I thought we played an academy brand of football and Walsall gave us an education on what the league looks like in key moments in the game.

“The game plan is pretty straightforward when we press, turn them, get in behind, and play off the big man but everything was about pocket runs and channel balls.

“They did those things brilliantly and we were particularly poor at that.”

Kennedy said that he thought the third Walsall goal was a particularly good example of where Swindon went wrong as they allowed the situation to get away from them.

He said: “I thought our brand was too lopsided and too unrealistic, not what EFL football looks like whether it is the Championship, League One, or League Two.

“A great example was the third goal, one of our players gets brought down and he bounces straight back up, so the ref plays on and within ten seconds we have given away a free kick.

“It is an outstanding strike but our game knowledge in that department was poor.

“It is not the referee’s fault why we have lost today, trust me on that, but our game understanding was naïve for sure.

“Then even with the second goal, when you get nudged, land on the ball and the referee will give you a free kick.

“I have said to the guys at half time in each game, ‘You cannot win the game in the next five minutes but you can sure as hell lose it.’

“Once that goal went in it was ultimately damage limitation because the performance wasn’t there for us to score four goals today.”