Phil Brown hoping for culture change at Swindon

Posted Sunday, April 22, 2018 by PA

Swindon manager Phil Brown thinks there needs to be a culture change at the club after his side had their play-off hopes dashed by Grimsby in a 1-0 defeat at the County Ground.

A first-half penalty converted by Mitch Rose was enough to see the home side fail to get back into League One at the first time of asking.

Brown said: “People are playing for contracts and I have got a lot of decisions to make, least of all about my own future.

“But we have to have a culture at the football club that we all buy in to and that includes the supporters, the owner and the players.

“We shouldn’t be in this position but until we get players that understand what it takes to play for Swindon, we will still be a League Two club next year.

“The culture has to change 100 per cent. The mentality of the group has to change. I don’t think enough of us sacrifice enough to get the most of our football careers.”

Swindon thought they had taken the lead in the 30th minute when Paul Mullin appeared to head the ball home but it was disallowed for handball.

The home side kept applying the pressure though and had another chance to go ahead moments later, only for Marc Richards to rifle his shot against the crossbar.

Grimsby were awarded a penalty moments before the half-time whistle after Ryan McGivern pulled down Harry Cardwell.

Rose then stepped up to convert the spot-kick and net for the third game in a row, taking his tally to eight for the season.

Swindon looked to respond after the restart when Keshi Anderson hit a curling effort towards the top corner – but it was matched by Grimsby goalkeeper James McKeown.

Despite taking another step to staying in the Football League, Grimsby manager Michael Jolley failed to admit his side are safe.

Jolley said: “It is a great result, there is still some important work ahead of us.

“I believe in this group and I believe they have the right mindset to get us over the line. If they keep working as they have then we have a good chance.

“I still think we have some important work to do. We are in a decent run – four out of five unbeaten.

“We have two games left and want to finish as strongly as we can. There is a massive job in getting the points to stay up. We need to keep our momentum going into next week.

“I have to praise Mitch Rose for the penalty and his performance, the fact he’s got three key goals in three important matches is all credit to him.”