Swindon Town boss Richie Wellens admitted it was his mistake that proved costly as Colchester United ran out comfortable 3-0 winners at the County Ground last night.
The Robins had been in good form coming into the fixture, winning their last three League Two matches and although they started the game very well, they failed to test Colchester goalkeeper Dean Gerken.
However, when Mathieu Baudry was forced off after with an ankle injury after half-an-hour played, Wellens told the Swindon Advertiser he made the wrong decision in replacing him with Tom Broadbent. He said: ‘For the first half-an-hour we were very good, we started more or less the same as how we finished our game against Macclesfield.’
‘Mathieu (Baudry) went off, and the whole dynamic of our team changed – that was my fault, I’ll blame myself for that and take it on the chin.’
‘I probably made the wrong substitution, I’ll learn from that. After that, we still created a few chances but without playing fluently.’
Theo Robinson helped himself to two goals on his return to the County Ground after Tom Eastman opened the scoring in first-half added time.
The win moves Colchester up to thirteenth in the table while Swindon drops to fourth.
On Saturday the Robins travel to play a Cambridge United side that hammered Mansfield 4-0 yesterday evening and Wellens will need to iron out the defensive lapses that led to the Colchester victory as well as looking at his own decision making if his side his to return to Wiltshire with a positive result.
Our View
A classic case of a manager taking the pressure of his players but the truth is Swindon didn’t get going.
Even before the substitution, they failed to offer penetration going forward, something which will concern many of their supporters.
The truth is, there’s very little between the teams in League Two this season, and if Swindon wants a promotion, they will need to be at one hundred per cent every game.
Hopefully, Wellens and his players will learn their lessons and move on quickly, starting with the tricky visit to Cambridge on Saturday.
