EFL boss admits ‘our wheels have come off’ days before vital play-off decider

Wait 5 sec.

Ian Holloway has admitted that the wheels have come off his Swindon Town players ahead of their biggest game of the season.The Robins fell out of the top seven in League Two for the first time since August with a 4-0 defeat to Grimsby Town last weekend.Swindon Town have conceded nine goals in their past three games, losing two of themGettyHolloway’s men, who have won just once across the last month, now find themselves one point behind seventh-placed Chesterfield with one game to go.Yet crucially, Swindon’s fate remains in their own hands, with the club hosting Paul Cook’s Spireites in the League Two regular season finale in a winner-takes-all showdown for the final play-off position.The two teams are coming into Saturday’s clash in polar opposite form, with Chesterfield unbeaten in their past seven games.And Swindon boss Holloway hopes a sell-out crowd at the Nigel Eady County Ground will reverse his side’s recent horror show.“Our wheels have come off,” Jeff Stelling and Gabby Agbonlahor on talkSPORT Breakfast.“I’m not even sure we’ve got one wheel on our wagon anymore, but that’s the way it goes when you get a few injuries, and you have a very young squad.“But I have to congratulate the ones who are already still fighting, the standards have been absolutely exceptional.“This is the only time in the whole season we’ve been out of the top six [seven], so it would be a bit cruel, but it’s down to us.“With how it has fallen, the only game that we can guarantee we’re still in control of anything is by playing Chesterfield. They’re at our place.“Our fans are absolutely magnificent, we have sold every single ticket, and I hope that they sing us across the line like Grimsby’s fans did last week for their team.Swindon have dropped out of the playoff positions with one match remainingGettyBut their destiny remains in their own hands ahead of their final home gameGetty“They scored the first goal, and my team could not cope with what was happening everywhere. Well done to them.‘Can we just get one win and limp into the playoffs?’“Let’s see, but I tell you, Cooky (Paul Cook) has a really good team there; they are in better form than we are, but form doesn’t matter now, mate!“Can we just get one win and limp into the playoffs?”Swindon’s uphill battle has been made even greater by Holloway serving the second of a two-match touchline ban this Saturday.The 63-year-old was sent off in the 83rd minute of his team’s 3-0 loss on 10 April for allegedly using offensive language towards an official.Holloway is still serving a two-game suspensionGettyHolloway: Might as well make referees A.IHe added: “How can a manager be the only one in the crowd who’s not allowed to swear when he’s been sworn at?“I’ve had it this year, this season, where an assistant manager swore at me five times, the fourth official heard it. “I swore back at him at the end, where I lost my temper, and I get a red card; he don’t get anything. “It’s all about how you’re perceived and things. I’m trying to improve myself, and that’s no easy feat when you’re 63. It really is. “I have to say, the way things are dealt with these days, who makes the decisions, how they’re asked to do things.“I remember referees having a bit of a laugh with you, having a bit of a joke with you, but now we may as well make them AI because we’re trying to make them like that.“Lifeless, soulless people who are judged on absolutely everything.“They’ve got to carry the law to the… It’s really changed since I was last in the dugout. For the worse, I mean.”