Jody Morris wants to add experience to his Swindon squad for next season

Posted Sunday, April 30, 2023 by PA

Jody Morris is determined to add some experience to his Swindon squad over the summer after his players wilted in the closing minutes at Crewe.

The Robins boss watched as late goals from Conor Thomas and Joel Tabiner earned the Railwaymen an unlikely 2-1 win.

Crewe had trailed to Rushian Hepburn-Murphy’s deflected effort just before the interval and were labouring until boss Lee Bell made a raft of changes, including bringing on Brentford loanee Lachlan Brook and Callum Ainley, who both made their mark on the game and delivered telling assists.

Brook’s fierce shot could not be held by Swindon goalkeeper Sol Brynn and Thomas was presented with a simple finish, before Tabiner flicked Ainley’s delivery into the far corner to complete Crewe’s comeback win with four minutes remaining.

Morris said: “We’ve got a young group. The average age of the side today was 22 and when we need that personality and character, at the moment we’re not showing it in the latter stages of games.

“Until we get more experienced players in we’re going to struggle when teams are coming for us.

“It keeps happening to us and it’s the type of stuff you see when Under-23 sides play in the Football League Trophy. We haven’t got enough experience in vital areas and while the experience will stand the young lads in good stead in the future, it is not helping us now.

“We didn’t get going in the second half and you have to give Crewe credit too. They changed their formation a couple of times and we should have dealt with it better – it was a disappointing performance.”

In the first half, Morris’ side did pose an attacking threat and 18-year-old home debutant Tom Booth was kept busy in Crewe’s goal.

Jake Cain’s free-kick came back off the woodwork and Jacob Wakeling also sent the rebound onto the crossbar. But the teenager could do nothing when Hepburn-Murphy’s deflected effort flew past him for Swindon’s 44th-minute opener.

As the game appeared to be petering out to a tame defeat, which would have been Crewe’s third consecutive loss, boss Bell made four changes which ignited a furious finish.

And after Thomas and Tabiner had turned the game on its head, Dan Agyei could even have added a third when he connected with Brook’s lofted cross and with Brynn stranded it needed a goal-line clearance from Tom Clayton to keep the margin of defeat down for the visitors.

Bell said: “It was a really good comeback to win the game like that. I thought there was going to be an opportunity for us to get something. The subs have come on and made a real impact.

“Lachlan was really bright when he came on, but it’s a team game and we needed to apply ourselves to get something from the game.

“Swindon didn’t cut us open and we coped well with their main threats from the full-backs really well. I was delighted that we were able to turn it around from being 1-0 down in that manner.”