Holloway on Blues' weak "chin" in Swindon's 5-1 thrashing
Ian Holloway said it was clear that Carlisle United have a weak “chin” after his Swindon Town side hammered the Blues 5-1.
The visitors ran riot in the second half as Carlisle’s woes increased.
Holloway had made four changes to his in-form side but said his confidence they could hurt Carlisle was justified.
He said: “I’m trying to pick the right people, get the right minutes into everybody. But I’ve also got great choices now and what I can do is throw a different punch on their [Carlisle’s] chin, see how their chin is – and their chin isn’t that strong, is it, after today?”
One of Swindon’s key men was Dan Butterworth, the former United attacker, who scored their opening goal late in the first half.
It was his fourth goal for the Robins since leaving Carlisle on the summer window’s transfer deadline day.
Holloway said he was delighted that Butterworth had made such an impact against his former club.
“The difficult thing with Dan is where am I going to play him?” Holloway added in a club interview.
Dan Butterworth opened the Swindon scoring against his former club (Image: Ben Holmes)
“He’s so instrumental when we’re attacking. As long as he does his runs with the ball, which are his biggest thing, he moves with the ball…that’s not easy to do all the time. If he gets more consistent he’ll get picked more consistently.
“I’m delighted for him. It’s very big when you come back to your old club. Sometimes they do sting you, [but] he did that to them in the first half.”
Holloway said his half-time message, aimed at intercepting United’s passing game, paid off after the break.
“We needed to come here and show our mettle. They started very well, I think we scored against the run of play to be honest,” he said.
“In the first 25 minutes they passed it around us, but we managed to get in at half-time one up, and for us to get the second one as quickly as we did, it felt really good.
“It knocked the stuffing out of them a bit.
“We looked too nervous when we didn’t get it [back off them in the first half]. I had to explain what we were talking about, in the second half it worked and we scored straight away.”
Swindon weeks ago were below United in the table but are now 16 points above the rock-bottom Cumbrians in 14th.
Holloway believes they can continue their revival, adding: “It’s wonderful to feel where we are at the moment – to come here as confident as we looked and we were, against a team who can pass it well, who had a couple of chances but luckily didn’t score, and we were clinical.
Ian Holloway guided his side to a fourth straight league win (Image: Ben Holmes)
“We’ve come to a really tough fixture and come away unscathed and delighted with ourselves.
“Let’s hope this confident streak continues. It’s only us that can stop it if we stop doing what we’re doing really well at the moment.
“Let’s see if we can have a gallop up the table and maybe frighten some people above us rather than look below us all the time.”
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