Match Report: Swindon Town 1-2 Blues
Blues qualify for the quarter-finals of the Vertu Trophy with a 2-1 win at Swindon Town thanks to Ayumu Yokoyama and a Harry Smith own goal.
Birmingham City qualified for the Vertu Trophy quarter-finals with a 2-1 victory over League Two Swindon Town.
Ayumu Yokoyama opened the scoring early in the second half after a defensive error before Harry Smith equalised. The Swindon substitute then put into his own net from a corner kick, gifting Blues the win and progression.
Davies made three changes from the side that beat Lincoln City in the FA Cup. Ethan Laird, Ben Davies and Alfie May stepped in to replace Christoph Klarer, Scott Wright and Lukas Jutkiewicz, all of whom were named on the bench. Byron Pendleton, who recently signed a new deal with the club, and Josh Home made the matchday squad with Paik Seung-Ho, Tomoki Iwata and Willum Willumson getting a rest.
This wasn’t a particularly fluent football match but Blues had the first couple of openings, Will Wright doing well to block May’s left-footed strike behind for a corner before Lyndon Dykes and Luke Harris linked up to test Jack Bycroft.
Swindon had their first chance just before half hour, a short corner routine leading to Daniel Butterworth shooting against a Blues defender. Blues quickly ran down the other end with Marc Leonard setting Yokoyama away, his low cross being deflected against the ground and off the bar by youngster Billy Kirkman.
Ethan Laird stepped inside from the right and shot wide and very little happened for the final ten minutes or so of the half.
The hosts were buoyant and had a decent opportunity following a Laird handball but youngster Joel Cotterill blazed his free-kick over the bar.
Blues took the lead a minute later. Antony McComick attempted to play out but gave the ball straight to Alfie May who quickly found the run of Yokoyama. The Japanese winger took a touch then calmly lifted the ball over Bycroft.
A little bit of action followed. Tummise Sobowale was a threat down the right and his effort at goal was shanked a little close to goal by Alfons Sampsted. Will Wright almost followed suit from a Yokoyama delivery, happily seeing the ball drop a couple of yards past the post after May’s volley was deflected away.
Yokoyama was the obvious danger for Blues and he showed his potential with an excellent cross for Laird, who made the back post and headed on target only for Bycroft to react sharply. The keeper then produced a camera save to stop Leonard’s free-kick.
Blues were punished for their profligacy. Will Wright stepped forward to receive a throw-in on the right and showcased his quality of delivery with a ball perfect for Smith, who rose above Sampsted for a shock equaliser.
Jutkiewicz was thrown onto the pitch against the club he made his professional debut for and almost had an impact, getting the better of Wright but shanking wide.
He and Dykes then caused mayhem in the area with a minute to go from an Alex Cochrane delivery, neither they or Bycroft getting to the ball and Smith could do little as the ball rebounded off his knee and into the net.
Not pretty, but Blues progress.
Lineups
Swindon: Bycroft; Sobowale McCormick Wright Kirkman (Chard 46); Cotterill Kilkenny (Ofoborh 73) Cain Butterworth (Ameen 73); Drinan (Smith 62) Tshimanga (Glatzel 62). Unused: Barden; Alston.
Blues: Peacock-Farrell; Laird Sampsted Davies Cochrane; Gardner-Hickman Leonard; Harris (Jutkiewicz 77) Dykes Yokoyama; May (Wright 73). Unused: Allsop; Pendleton Klarer Home Betteka.
Tactics
Back to normality for Blues after a dalliance with a full-back stepping into midfield last weekend.
It was 4-2-3-1 but with Laird (RB) and Yokoyama (LW) holding the width. Cochrane (LB) tucked in slightly. Leonard sat at the base. Blues tended to move more towards a 4-3-3 with Gardner-Hickman and Harris pulling wide to show for the wide centre back while staying narrow and ready for second balls when the ball was played more direct.
Peacock-Farrell goes long in the instance below, but you can see the shape of the team when playing from goal kicks and generally out from the back.
The image below – leading to Kirkman putting against his own bar – showcases our attacking set-up with Yokoyama and Laird out wide and Gardner-Hickman and Harris now tucked inside to support the front two. Leonard, at the base of midfield, is the one playing forward with the back three behind.
The reason Blues pulled wider was that Swindon played a narrow 4-4-2, doing their best to condense the pitch. The two strikers sat inside of Sampsted (RCB) and Cochrane (LB), as shown in the first image. Cain and Kilkenny (CMs) were then responsible for Gardner-Hickman and Leonard whenever they showed from the defence with Cotterill and Butterworth (WGs) stepping in to support or getting out to Harris and Gardner-Hickman when they pulled wide. That allowed the defence to work against Blues’ wide men and strikers, the full-back tending to tuck in from the opposite side.
They had an issue early on. The centre of defence and midfield weren’t quite brave enough, which allowed Blues to shepherd the ball wide then drop it back inside, usually for Leonard. They grew into that aspect of the game, the centre-backs starting to be more aggressive against Dykes, allowing the midfield to step up.
For Blues, the above meant Davies seeing a lot more of the ball at centre-back as the spare man. It also meant us going more direct in our play as Swindon stepping up created more space in behind or out wide. Yokoyama was regularly available while Blues had a tendency to switch out to Laird on the right up against the young left-backs.
Swindon played a 4-4-2 and it appeared as though they were given license to make decisions when to play and when to go longer. It felt like their priority was getting the ball in a productive position to make the direct pass with more accuracy having drawn Blues on.
From goal kicks, they had a tendency to leave Drinan up against Davies and look for seconds. In general play, the direct ball came more from the left side with Tshimanga the target up against Sampsted.
When they did get the ball down, they would look to utilise Sobowale on the overlap down the right with Cotterill tucking in. Yokoyama was responsible in the initial press for Sobowale but once Swindon had control on the left, he would tuck in on to Cotterill with Cochrane responsible for getting out in the first instance.
The goals
1-0: Ayumu Yokoyama
The short answer is this came from an error. But Ian Holloway eluded to players being available to back team-mates up and let’s look at it in more detail.
Peacock-Farrell went long with a goal kick to Dykes. Both centre-backs found themselves in no-mans land, neither being tight to Dykes or tracking May and Wright did well to reposition himself to control the bouncing ball.
Wright decides not to play forward and instead looks back but immediately finds himself under pressure from Harris with Dykes and May nearby. McCormick is the only option but the youngster himself is still setting himself into a position to receive. As McCormick receives, Sobowale flies forward down the right.
And it means when McComick gets his first time pass to Chard wrong, he finds himself 1v3 defensively. He gets the pass wrong and May finds Yokoyama with the winger composed with the finish.
1-1: Harry Smith
Sobowale has a throw in and Blues are probably a little too deep to begin with – the whole team are within 25 yards of goal.
When Sobowale throws it, Harris is turned around communicating with somebody in the area before turning to see the situation and sprinting out. He’s in reactive mode thereon.
Despite being deep, Blues have found themselves outnumbered for the cross with Davies taking on the near post position leaving Laird and Sampsted marking Glatzel, Smith and Ameen.
Laird makes the decision to tackle the bigger man but gets himself pinned by Smith, who is simply bigger and stronger. The header is a simple one for a player of his skillset and quality.
2-1: Harry Smith Own Goal
All game, Blues tasked Alex Cochrane to put corners right onto the goalkeeper. It’s something we do commonly, but rare that every delivery goes in on top of the keeper – usually there is a mix of near post and far post deliveries.
Swindon have a mix of man markers and spare men. There are two at the front post with Gardner-Hickman nearby on the post. Somebody is marking Jutkiewicz while Bycroft is marked by Scott Wright. Harry Smith and another Swindon defender I can’t quite make out are free in the centre and far side of the six-yard box with Ben Davies and Lyndon Dykes marked. Then Ethan Laird is marked just outside of the chaos.
Laird makes a run into the area and as the ball reaches the six-yard box, there are 15 players inside the area.
It’s tricky to see exactly what happens thereon. However, Bycroft, under pressure from Wright, completely misses the ball. Dykes gets hauled to the ground amid the chaos which also partly takes out Sobowale, his marker. Jutkiewicz rises but can’t reach the ball and Harry Smith is left helpless a couple of yards from the goal, knocking the ball into his net.
Players
Not a night in which many stepped up, truth be told. But it also wasn’t terrible.
I thought Cochrane was probably our best player on the evening in terms of delivering the type of performance he normally delivers. Yokoyama was bright too, getting more opportunity to go 1v1 and causing problems.
I thought Leonard and Gardner-Hickman took too many touches at times. I'm not sure how much the pitch has to do with that. Sampsted and Davies were okay. Peacock-Farrell didn't have much to deal with but was sound in his dealings.
Laird was energetic and almost got a goal at the back post which would have been nice – it’s important the wing-backs get into those positions when tasked with stepping up. May, Dykes and Harris did little wrong but also didn’t excel.
For Swindon, Sobowale was lively and provided a good outlet. I also liked Cotterill in midfield, who was tidy, technical and full of energy. If I was awarding a man of the match, I’d have probably given it to Will Wright, who led by example as part of a youthful Swindon defence.
Conclusions
We’re through, that’s the important thing.
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t enamoured with the display. Saying “we were nowhere near good enough" was a little over the top looking back.
I just didn’t feel like we got into a rhythm last night. Part of that may have to do with the number of changes and some without too much game time playing for the second time in four days. Part of that may be down to the pitch as well – Davies and the players referenced it after. Whatever the reasons, it just didn’t feel as fluent as we’ve been for a lot of this season in how we move the ball and it felt like a grind to get the win.
And yet, completing this report, you realise that despite not being at our best, we’ve restricted the opposition to very little – they scored their only shot on target – and had a few chances ourselves, or put the ball into dangerous areas.
So it wasn’t all bad.
The cup matches have been a nice distraction after a Christmas schedule that wore players and fans down a little bit. It has clearly taken its toll and despite two weeks away from league action, we head into the weekend with doubts over Bielik, Iwata, Paik and Stansfield while Anderson, Hansson, Willumson and Buchanan will all be missing. It’s a good job the likes of Sampsted, Wright, Leonard and Harris have had minutes over the last two games.
Davies has confirmed we want a centre-back to replace Dion Sanderson – Grant Hanley is expected to join – and that we are also looking at a left-back following Lee Buchanan’s nasty injury. It makes sense, as does the idea that we will only add somebody in another part of the pitch if the right option comes up. We aren’t desperate, and it’s a nice spot to be in.
If you want to hear more from me, you can catch me on the latest episode of the Keep Right On podcast:
Nice one, Ryan. Getting through with minutes for some underused players is the important thing. Leonard, Sampsted and TGH are likely to be very important in the second half of the season.
Hanley seems like a good move with the Neuman thing not happening till the summer. Very experienced and tough.