Swindon Town were beset by injuries at Northampton Town as they turned in a display they will hope was below par; how much grace should they get? The excitement and anticipation for a new season did not last long beyond the first whistle at the Sixfields Stadium. Both teams set out their stall early, with Northampton happy to hit long balls and go from there, whilst Swindon’s attempts to work space out wide did not come to much. Read more Forward joins list of hamstring concerns, but hope for swift return Who was commanding and who looked lost? Swindon players rated Swindon set to complete move for midfielder to replace injured Kilkenny The pressing from Town that had impressed so much against Cardiff City and across pre-season was less relevant when the opposition had little to no interest in having the ball at the back for more than two touches. On the occasions when The Cobblers did look to play, Swindon had more joy, but they were smart enough not to try it very often. With the ball, it was a disappointing display, with only a handful of runs from Aaron Drinan, Louis Millard, and Joseph Hungbo creating flickering flashes of danger. No shots on target told the story of a performance without much thrust. After the match, Ian Holloway and Connor Ripley quite rightly discussed how the eight injury absences had made life difficult for Swindon. Paul Glatzel’s hamstring seizing up after the final training session was an especially big blow, especially without another natural replacement for him. The 25-year-old is a tactical capstone for Town, having the responsibility to lead the press, and removing him at short notice was always going to create issues with the structure. Glatzel was one of eight players missing at Northampton, with Swindon a man light on the bench and fielding two 17-year-olds and two players making their league debuts. Over the last few weeks, Swindon have had to respond to the knowledge that they will be without two major players for half of the season, Gavin Kilkenny and Fletcher Holman. Much of the reaction to the performance reflected the difficult circumstances that created it. There were plenty of things to quibble about, but just as many reasons to understand why that might be the case. At no point during this summer would Swindon have been expecting Tom Nichols to play a sizeable portion of their opening league match on the left wing. Those injuries, combined with a liberal dose of remembering what the end of last season looked like, have led to the lowest expectations I can remember for a new season. But how long can the grace period last for injury struggles? Swindon themselves have said that they are aiming for promotion again, so even if others are not seeing that as being likely, the product on the pitch will have to be judged on that aim. For now, it is perfectly understandable that things have not yet come together. The transfer window is still open, and Swindon were not after a player to replace Kilkenny before he got injured. It would have been fairly miraculous if they had managed to find a workaround for not having one of the central cogs in the team already. However, the injury crisis at large is something that arguably should have been accounted for. In the second half of last season, the treatment room at the Nigel Eady County Ground was more of an army hospital. The injury problems began well before July, and the first notable action to prevent them was