Steven Alzate earns Phil Brown praise as Swindon strike back for points

Posted Sunday, October 28, 2018 by PA

Swindon boss Phil Brown was full of praise for Steven Alzate after he climbed off the bench to score as the Robins came from behind to beat Notts County 2-1.

Alzate was dropped from the starting XI following the 2-0 defeat at home to Cambridge in midweek but came off the bench to rescue his side and help them grab all three points.

County took the lead before the break through Kane Hemmings but Alzate levelled after 65 minutes and then an own goal from Jamie Turley with 10 minutes remaining earned Brown’s men all three points.

Brown said: “You want your subs to make an impact and they did that. Steven Alzate was involved in a team that lost on Tuesday night although it wasn’t for the want of trying.

“But what you want from players who have been dropped or rested, is that they impact the game.

“Steven did just that. He is learning his trade, but he certainly needed to be out there because it was a good surface.

“I thought they had a bit of weakness down their right-hand side which we tried to exploit, while Jermaine McGlashan and Kyle Knoyle snuffed out their threat on the left.”

Harry Kewell’s side created numerous chances to extend the lead in the first half with Enzio Boldewijn, Matt Tootle and Lewis Alessandra all going close.

A disappointed Kewell said: “I said to the players in the dressing room after the game ‘tell me when is a game ever easy at 1-0? Tell me the one game that you’ve played in when it’s 1-0 and you knew you were going to win’?

“It just doesn’t happen. We knew Swindon were poor and we knew exactly what they were going to do.

“We just needed to take our chances, but again it’s the same old story at the moment.

“What we did well in the first half, we stopped doing in the second. But we’ve got to be more ruthless in front of goal and we have to be tougher.

“We need to have grit and have the ability to dig people out on the pitch.

“We don’t want to be soft and go ‘ooh that’s acceptable’ because it isn’t. We need to work even harder now.”