Come in OAP and GPC with your intro's ...please.
Now that it looks like the game will be on I'll throw my stats into the mix!
OAP has already provided some, but following Swindons goalless draw with Stevenage last night they sit 7th in the table, that point lifting them into the last playoff place. Following a run of five consecutive wins (or 9 wins in 11 games if you prefer) in all competitions in October/November they have now only won one of their last six games and that was in the FA Cup at Walsall. Their reward for winning that game is a home televised tie against Manchester City next Friday night.
There was a decent crowd of 8131 at the County Ground last night, it was their first home League game in over a month though. Swindon have had no fewer than fourteen managers in the last 10 years, the current incumbent is Ben Garner, he's been in charge since July and has now actually recorded victories in 14 of his 28 games in charge for a solid 50% win ratio. Garner previously oversaw a less than successful reign at Bristol Rovers.
Midfielder Jack Payne leads the goalscoring charts, at least in the league, he has 8 goals to his name. Next up comes 19 year old forward Tyreece Simpson with seven, although he has two cup goals to add to that too. He was the scorer of the Robins goal in the reverse fixture earlier this season. Harry McKirdy has scored six goals this season too, and he has picked up 9 yellow cards in all competitions too.
Over the past few years there have been a few Cobblers connections....formers Cobblers turning out for the Robins have included Hallam Hope, Christopher Missilou, Keshi Anderson, Marc Richards, Luke Norris and of course Matt Taylor. Looking through the current squad list now though it seems that goalkeeper Lewis Ward is their only former Cobbler, he appeared on loan for us in 2018/19, used sparingly, much as he is being used sparingly by Swindon....he's made just two league appearances, his other five games have been in the EFL Trophy and the EFL Cup.
108 meetings between the two sides over the years, Swindon lead the way with 49 wins to our 36 and as OAP has already pointed out, the Swindon version of The County Ground is not a happy hunting ground for us, just nine wins in 54 matches there.
There has been a symmetry over the past three seasons, in 2018/19 both games ended in 1-1 draws (John Joe-O'Toole scoring for us at their place and Andy Williams our scorer at Sixfields). In 2019/20 both games ended in 1-0 away wins (Andy Williams again being the difference in the game at Swindon), and in 2020/21 both games ended in 2-1 home wins (Missilou and Rose our scorers at Sixfields, with Ryan Watson on the scoresheet in our defeat at the CG), therefore i'd put all your money on a repeat of the result earlier in this season just to keep the sequence going! In that game back in September a late Fraser Horsfall equaliser salvaged us a point in front of 5863 fans.
Referee appointments for the festive and New Year fixtures were made well over a week before Christmas, and the allocated ref for this game is James Oldham. He's in his fourth year on the EFL list, and so far this season has dished out a hefty 70 yellow and 2 red cards in 18 games. We saw him last in February when we slipped to defeat at Blackpool. He also reffed our win at Grimsby at the end of the curtailed 2020 season. This will be his second visit to the County Ground this season, he took charge of Swindons 1-0 Trophy win over Newport at the beginning of November.
