The sense is that this was not the end of it between Swindon Town and MK Dons for the season. Starting third and fourth in League One, they ended fourth and third after the visiting Dons ran riot with a scintillating second-half display to win 3-0 at the County Ground. With a five-point gap to Preston in second and a six-point gap over Sheffield United in fifth, the spread at the top of this division is greater than that in the Championship. These two could well be on course for the play-off final at Wembley on 24 May.
Not that managers, still less fans, tend to see it like this. For months the former through the divisions have rebuffed questions inviting them to express confidence in their chances of this or that with “there will be lots of twists and turns before May”. The latter, counting anything rather than what Alan Hansen might call stonewall chickens, will work out all manner of improbable scorelines to justify their unease.
They have a point, too. Form and fortune are fickle, as Swindon and MK Dons know from almost identical and simultaneous dips. From late January Swindon suffered five defeats in eight games, winning only two. From the start of February MK Dons lost four in eight, also winning two. Each had pulled out of the slump and they met with fresh confidence after successive wins.
Indeed they played with an abandon that suggested they did not really expect to catch even Preston, let alone the tearaway leaders, Bristol City, and equally were far enough ahead of those below to risk enjoying themselves. Eventually Swindon also abandoned any semblance of defensive order. As Mark Cooper, their subdued manager, said: “If you keep turning the ball over, you get in trouble. The longer the game went on [and the Dons kept scoring], the more we had to gamble a bit. Obviously when you concede three goals at home it’s not ideal. At half-time it was an even game.”
In terms of chances Swindon had the better then. While their keeper, Wes Foderingham, had to save solidly from Daniel Powell and sensationally from Will Grigg steaming on to Darren Potter’s 40-yard through-ball, they sourced as much down the left, from where Massimo Luongo and Ben Gladwin crossed to a man arriving beyond the far post. At least Nathan Byrne forced a save. But the striker Matt Smith took an age to pick up the pace. Beforehand Swindon, through international calls – six, no less, for a League One club – and Walsall’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy action, had gone 18 days without a game.
After the interval they could not live with the Dons, whose play, flowing with deft touches and switches of direction, had them in a spin. Karl Robinson, almost five years in a job he began at 29, is an admirer of the Dutch ethos that “the master of the ball becomes master of the game” and, perhaps picking up on the club’s proximity to Bletchley, is playing the imitation game and finding local Englishmen to do it.
One of them, Dele Alli, 19 next Saturday, catches the headlines, a midfielder of fine balance for 6ft 2in and now a Spur back on loan. He returned within himself from a six-week ankle injury to pull strings with Samir Carruthers and turn screws with Grigg. They exposed the frailties of Swindon’s three at the back, even with their new loanee, Sam Ricketts from Wolves, as protective shield. Foderingham beat out Grigg’s shot for Powell to nod in after an hour and Grigg signed off high-class moves for the other two goals.
“A lot of teams have been up and down,” Cooper said hopefully, and Barnsley bear him out, rocketing from 19th to sixth with six wins from late February before draws with the top two. The Tykes are now one of six sides below the line looking to get above it. Swindon are at Bristol City on Tuesday and Steve Cotterill watched them here. “He knows we’re a good side and will beware a sting in the tail,” Cooper said. “They are more direct than the Dons.”
Inevitably there are a host of other top-12 clashes to come but nothing to dim Robinson’s excitement. “That was our best away performance in years,” he said. “To beat Swindon home and away is as good as it gets. A usual rule of thumb is that 72 points get you into the play-offs and we’ve done it with seven games to spare.” As for the advantage this win might have on a play-off match, he added: “We’ve put logs on their fire.” It could make a crackling final.
