Swindon Town’s appointment of Phil Brown is risky and eyebrow raising

The appointment of Phil Brown as the new Swindon Town manager earlier this week might have raised a few eyebrows across the game.

Having been relieved of his duties at League One Southend Utd in January after a five-year spell, Brown now has a chance to win another promotion from League Two having previously taken the The Shrimpers up in 2015.

The Robins are in good shape despite the departure of David Flitcroft at beginning of the month and Brown has a 10 game season in which to get the Wiltshire outfit into the play-off places, automatic promotion looks to be out of their reach unless they can win 7 or more of those remaining games.

Brown does bring a massive amount of experience with him and is close to 500 games as a manager, but as others have seen themselves around League Two this season, that doesn’t always guarantee a team will respond.

Swindon do however have the division’s best away record, but home performances have been disappointing and only six teams have a worse home record than the Robins, something Brown will need to improve drastically in a short space of time.

The remaining fixtures would appear to be on Swindon’s side too.

With a visit to Exeter and hosting title challengers Accrington Stanley on the final day of the season, the other eight fixtures are against sides below them and with three or four of those teams needing a miraculous run to trouble the playoffs, the Robins should pick up the points they need.

Despite yet another home defeat at the weekend, it hasn’t dented hopes too much and with two away games coming up at Cambridge and Exeter, Swindon will be confident of being in the promotion shake-up as they head into the crucial Easter period.

Either way for Brown, it’s a no-lose situation with a contract only until the end of the season but with the potential to turn it into a longer-term arrangement in a league higher.

He knows they can’t afford too many slipups not change too much from the previous regime as time is not on his side, in two months time Brown will either be patted on the back, or at the back of the dole queue.

 

Written by Trevor Knell

Follow Trevor on Twitter @trevk37

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