Phil Brown revels in Swindon victory after winning start as new boss

Posted Sunday, March 18, 2018 by PA

New Swindon manager Phil Brown revelled in his side’s victory at Cambridge in his first game in charge.

Headers by Luke Norris and Marc Richards set the Robins on the way to a deserved 3-1 victory, and Richards converted a penalty late on to seal the result after Uche Ikpeazu had reduced the deficit 17 minutes from time.

Asked what impressed him most about his new players, Brown said: “I think the commitment, not just to the cause of winning the game but the week’s work.

“I’ve gone in on Monday and met with everybody apart from the players because Matty (Taylor, who had acted as caretaker player-manager) had things to say to them.

“He had one game and it was a disappointing result last week and he felt hurt by it, and that’s the kind of person I want around.

“I’ve bled him dry this week and taken every bit of information that he’s given me about every individual, and more or less used it in the team selection.

“Everything about it today was first class. The only downside was the goal.

“I’m screaming at them for clean sheet mentality and it just made things a little bit more nervous, more exciting, but the third goal came at the right time so I could just relax a wee bit.

“It was a case of round pegs in round holes today and everybody was happy with their positions. I asked them to keep hold of the shirt and I think the majority of them did.”

Interim Cambridge boss Joe Dunne acknowledged this his side had been second best after suffering his second defeat in his seven games in charge.

“It was probably a game too many in this incredible run of games that we’ve had against the top sides,” he reflected.

“Swindon came and did a really good job. It was always going to be difficult to keep that momentum. We didn’t start the game particularly well and lost our way a little bit, and they scored at a good time.

“It became a bit of a scrappy game which we felt we could manage because we’ve done that in previous games, but the killer was the second goal.

“We spoke about not giving away free-kicks with Taylor’s quality on the ball. It’s a great ball in and a good goal. That really completely took the wind out of our sails.

“I won’t fault the players, they’ve done magnificently in this run of games that we’ve had, unfortunately today we’ve come out on the wrong side and also performance wise we were a little bit below par as well, but we’ll pick ourselves up and go again.”