Phil Brown addressed the media ahead of Town’s trip to Crawley Town on Tuesday night.
The Gaffer was posed with questions on his team’s calmness when they were two down against Tranmere:
“I was probably the most anxious and normally that spills onto the field of play but the calmness came from maybe the substitutions – and I’m not singing my praises there – making a good impact, making a difference. Whenever you’re a substitute, you’re trying to get a starting place – the players that came on, Marc Richards – we got a lot more out of him than we thought, and Steven Alzate for sure.
“When you think about substitutes going on to win a game from 2-0 down, they certainly come into the forefront of your mind for a start against Crawley. At the same time, the competition for places is high and I think that calmness comes from that. I think there’s a reality as a midfield player at Swindon Town Football Club that there’s a queue of players playing for four positions.
“When you do get your opportunity you have to grab it and I think that’s what Steven Alzate looked to have done, and Marc Richards. I’m not giving the team away by any stretch of the imagination.”
On what happens after a win on Saturday:
“I’ve had a lovely Sunday which was a pleasure because there’s nothing worse than for instance, after the Lincoln game. A Tuesday game requires real work on the training ground - back-four sessions, midfield sessions, the rudiments of defending this week.”
On Harry Kewell:
Harry Kewell is renowned, already, for being someone who looks like he wants to play open, expansive football, over the top, excessive football, maybe. Sometimes (when you do that) you haven’t catered for the opposition, I’ve always catered for the opposition but if we turn up on Tuesday night, and on Saturday, the way we turn up for 45 minutes of games and extending that to 75-90 minutes then we’ll win games more comfortably than we are at the moment.
On Crawley Town:
Crawley was one of the games I was involved in last season – we went a goal behind and, if truth be known, it could have been a couple. It stayed at one and Richards came off the bench.
Getting a point at Crawley is no mean feat – we have to bring our ‘A’ Game to the party defensively because I know we’ve got a good enough strike force. I need them to understand the clean sheet mentality, the defensive ‘A’ game needs to be on show. It’s about the group mentality – they’ve worked well today.
On Injuries:
Dion (Conroy) trained today which was a big plus – he only came in to be involved for the warm-up but he eventually did the full session. His will be a gradual build-up – fairly similar to what Marc Richards did last week but it was a very physical week for Marc last week. By that, I mean he trained every day and he was battered.
The fact that he got 65 minutes is purely between his ears – he was given the shout 25 minutes in purely because of circumstances beyond my control, beyond his. It could have been a silly decision but I felt we needed to get them on the back foot.
On early-season pressure:
We’re not at that stage in the season where you’re looking at league tables and starting to get excited about the league table, the top three, top five whatever it is. What I’m trying to get across to the players is getting a foothold in the competition, a 46-game championship, and we’re three games into it. Already, we’re talking about managers getting the sack and it’s crazy – but that’s the nature of the beast unfortunately.
We played Steve McClaren’s team, the Tuesday before the season started, and he was bouncing, on an absolute high, desperate for the season to start and then all of a sudden he gets beat 7-1. That was the shock of the weekend – I thought Wow – Steve’s under pressure. Jose Mourinho is under pressure from one loss against Brighton – but that’s the nature of the business we’re in.
You’re a point off the top at the moment, three off the bottom – we’ll wait until 10-12 games into the season, then we’ll start looking at directing factors.
