Swindon Town were unable to maximise their advantage against a ‘keeper-less Barrow in their 1-1 draw up in Cumbria.

After Ged Garner had put Barrow ahead, a rush of blood from goalkeeper Paul Farman saw him sent off before the break. Harry Smith was then dismissed for an elbow at a corner before Danny Butterworth stole a late point with his low strike from distance.

So, how did the players get on at the SO Legal Stadium?

(Image: Newsquest)

GK: Jack Bycroft – 5

Cards on the table, the view at Barrow is not great and watching the highlights would make me too angry, so my picture of it is obscured. However, the finish from Ged Garner was very Erhun Oztumer of him and he had to come out with Grant Hall beaten down the side, so I don’t blame him for that one.

RCB: Will Wright – 5

Ten against 11 seemed well set up for Wright and he was attempting to orchestrate from deep along with Gavin Kilkenny. I just wanted to see a bit more urgency with his quality. There was space in front of him consistently, we know he has the quality to exploit that but he seemed too confined to the instructions of shovelling left and right.

CB: Grant Hall – 4

I think he did get bamboozled for the goal, leading to the injury, and allowed the space for Garner to get the shot away. There were a few times when the pace of Barrow got to him on the counter and that was causing bother even before he came off.

LCB: Miguel Freckleton – 6

I like the way Freckleton is playing right now as he is defensively solid and also gets forward and helps out the left wing-back to create triangles out wide. He put in one good cross and maybe you need more but I think he comes out with some credit.

RWB: Jeff King – 3

It was positive to see King have a go from a free kick, which, lo and behold, was when Swindon came closest. But he is a player in the team for his quality out wide and he just wasn’t producing anything like enough the kind of good balls in that the game plan was based around.

CM: Ollie Clarke – 5

Clarke wasn’t on the pitch for all the craziness and did crash the box well once to get a shot off, which is a key skill of his. But in a game that Barrow were able to make transitional, they were able to get on top of him.

CDM: Gavin Kilkenny – 4

It was a tough assignment for Kilkenny as he was the conductor from deep and he was keeping the ball moving. At the same time, he was in a position to take the bull by the horns like he did against Notts County and he never really did that to try and change things up and at least try and thread something through the middle when balls into the box clearly weren’t working.

CM: Danny Butterworth – 4

The goal was exactly what Swindon should have been doing more often. That does not mean shots all the time but change things up and keep Feely feeling uncomfortable. My frustration here is that Butterworth is the player in this team with the capability to commit a man on the dribble and he was just a bit anonymous for stretches with short passes to the wing-back.

LWB: Jake Cain – 2

I am calling time on the Cain-left wing-back experiment. It has been two games and it simply doesn’t work. Elliot Newby had his number every time for 25 minutes and he wasn’t offering much in possession. He then moved to midfield and just nothing was coming off.

ST: Harry Smith – 1

You know why.

ST: Kabongo Tshimanga – 3

Tshimanga does deserve a degree of sympathy as in three games, out of two chances he’s had, one he had to create for himself. The service wasn’t there often enough but he has to offer more, drag the defence back with some runs in behind or drop in sometimes to offer a quick one-two. He simply wasn’t doing enough.

Subs:

Tunmise Sobowale – 5

Despite being a 25th-minute substitute, he only just qualifies for a rating. He did well to take away some of the threat from Newby. I understand the logic of taking him off, but I think Swindon could have done with his ability and desire to beat a man when only Freckleton attempted more than one dribble.

Ryan Delaney – 4

This change got some fortune as his load was heavily reduced by Barrow deciding not to attack after the red card. He was fine, is the best way to put it. After an early long ball that was aimless, he decided to keep it simple and give it to those who are better with their feet.

George Cox – 6

For 20 minutes he really understood the assignment before tiring out towards the end. He wanted to run at Neo Eccleston and make Barrow uncomfortable in a way nobody else did and also got into the box to offer another target.

Paul Glatzel – N/A

Aaron Drinan – N/A