Swindon Town
Sky Bet League 1
Saturday 10th August 2013
The County Ground, County Road, Swindon, SN1 2ED
Kick Off: 3pm
Weather Forecast: Cloudy, 19°c
Referee: D Whitestone (Northants)
After Tuesday’s cup heroics Stevenage travel to Wiltshire on Saturday to face Swindon Town with both teams looking to pick up their first league win of the season.
Last time we met:
Two sublime strikes from Aden Flint guaranteed Swindon a League One play-off spot as they recorded a comfortable win over 10-man Stevenage in April. The defender's first goal of the season put the Robins ahead as he struck a half-volley into the top corner. Gary Roberts doubled the lead when he fired in off the post after Dani Lopez had been sent off for the visitors following a clash with Alan McCormack. Flint sealed the win with a stunning shot into the bottom corner.
Boro: Day, Comminges, N’Gala, Roberts, Hills (Haber), Grant (Charles), Dunne, Ehmer (Ball), Akins, Freeman, Lopez
Subs not used: Arnold, Gray, Mahon, Hoskins
Team News:
Swindon are likely to stick with a similar side to that which won 1-0 against Torquay in midweek. Andy Williams remains the only striker at the club so will lead the line alone with on-loan Spurs youngster Alex Pritchard likely to support him.
Stevenage welcome back Dani Lopez from suspension but the Spaniard may have to settle for a place on the bench as Jordan Burrow could get another chance to impress after Tuesday’s win over Ipswich. Steve Arnold will continue in goal as Chris Day is injured whilst James Dunne could return from injury.
The Swindon Town Scout Report
Recent Form:
Swindon will be keen for their first three points of the league campaign after falling to a 1-0 defeat at Peterborough in last weekend’s opening game. Britt Assombalonga scored the winner after just nine minutes of his debut to hand Posh the victory against a Town team containing six debutants.
Mark Cooper’s men then bounced back with a narrow 1-0 home win over Torquay in the Capital One Cup on Tuesday night, Andy Williams getting the all-important goal seven minutes from time. They have since been handed a second round tie at Queens Park Rangers.
Pre-season for Swindon provided a mixed bag of results. They picked up wins against Swindon Supermarine (3-1), Cirencester Town (3-1), a 1-1 draw with Spurs and defeats to Birmingham City (0-3) and Forest Green Rovers (0-2).
Possible Swindon line-up for Saturday (4-4-1-1 formation):
Wes Foderingham; Jack Barthram, Grant Hall, Darren Ward, Nathan Byrne; Louis Thompson, Yaser Kasim, Ryan Mason, Tijane Reis; Alex Pritchard; Andy Williams
Subs from: Nathan Thompson, Leigh Bedwell, Massimo Luongo, Jay McEveley, Miles Storey, Alex Smith, Troy Archibald-Henville, Ryan Harley
Key Man:
Alex Pritchard is an attacking midfielder who has joined Swindon on a season-long loan from Tottenham. The 20-year old has made quite an impact within the youth ranks at White Hart Lane in recent years, scoring a number of goals against the likes of Barcelona and Inter Milan in the NextGen Series tournaments which have led to speculation that some of Europe’s top teams would come in for him. In January he signed on loan with then-Championship outfit Peterborough but only made six appearances in an injury-hit spell at London Road. Posh saw enough potential in the midfielder to enquire about a longer spell with them only for the midfielder to join Swindon in early July. Back in May Pritchard was also named in Peter Taylor’s 21-man squad for the 2013 FIFA U20 World Cup and made his debut in a 3-0 warm-up win against Uruguay.