Swindon Town v Plymouth Argyle - the build up plus Q&A

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The countdown to Swindon - Saturday

Tuesday

The referee for Saturday's game is Robert Lewis who was last in charge of an Argyle game in December last season for the 3-3 draw against Bradford City at Home Park. So far this season he has issued 38 yellow cards and three reds in nine games.
He will assisted by Kevin Morris and Matthew Lee while the fourth official is Bhupind Gill.

Daniel Hunt of the Swindon Town Fans' Trust has kindly agreed to give Pasoti users an insight into his club with a Q&A ....

Q: What are your thoughts on Swindon's season so far?
DH: We had a fantastic start to the League season, which has tailed off in the last 4 games (with home defeats against Colchester Utd & Newport County, and a first away defeat to Bradford in the last game). Disappointing exit from the League Cup in the 1st Round, also against pesky Colchester!
Further tough games to come against Plymouth and Crewe in the next two League games. With several injured players and Eoin Doyle (missed Bradford game against parent club) set to return, four points from those two fixtures would see us firmly back on promotion track.

Q: What are your views on Richie Wellens?
DH: Personally think that Richie Wellens has done a fantastic job at STFC so far. Firstly in guiding Phil Brown's hideously lopsided squad to a near play-off push in March/April last season - smart January loan recruitment (Kyle Bennett, Theo Robinson and Canice Carroll for example) was the key to that surge in form. Style of football is good to watch and we're particularly good on the counter attack under Wellens.

The mass summer clear out was required, but many of the players retained (Conroy, Doughty, Anderson, Woolery, etc) form the basis of a quality squad at League 2 level. Working with Director of Football Paul Jewell, the summer recruitment has seen a step change in the quality introduced to the club. The loan striker pairing of Eoin Doyle (7 goals) and Jerry Yates (6 goals) are razor sharp when given service from Doughty, Anderson, Woolery and new midfield recruits Lloyd Isgrove and Jordan Lyden. 
Injuries at the back have been cruel, with Arsenal loanee Dan Ballard and Club Captain Dion Conroy both already ruled out for the season with injuries picked up in games. Free signing Gabriel Zakuani has signed this week to try and shore things up enough before Mathieu Baudry returns to fitness and ex Bristol Rovers man Tom Broadbent hopefully overcomes a crisis in confidence.

Q: Given the recent financial problems and ownership issues of lower league clubs are Swindon in a stable state at the moment?
DH: Relative to many of our League counterparts, STFC are currently stable, yes. Crowds have returned to the 7-7.5k mark this season, which is a good sign of efforts off the pitch from Swindon's Media and Ticketing staff.
Working with "Trust STFC" and Swindon Council, a deal is close for club and fans to purchase the freehold of the County Ground on a 50-50 Joint Venture basis. This will hopefully be the key to unlocking future investment into redeveloping our home of approx. 120 years. More to come, watch this space!

Q: What are your expectations and predicted finishing position in League Two for this season?
DH: With better quality in the Squad and a pair of goalscorers on board, might we expect top 3? What's holding us back is a lack of depth (our spare striker is Scott Twine and he's not a scratch on Doyle/Yates) and a frustrating number of injuries to key players already. A risk when you sign quality players like Zeki Fryers and Lloyd Isgrove - part of the reason they've dropped all the way down to League 2 is that they've missed large chunks of their career through injury! 
All of which makes me revise my expectations to a 6th/7th place finish and a crack at the play-offs, where our large and magnificent support will help us get over the line back to League 1!

Q: Without giving too much away what style of football and formation are Swindon likely to use against Argyle?
DH: This year, Wellens has alternated between 4-2-3-1 (partly owing to lack of strikers until Doyle arrived) and quite an attacking 4-4-2 (with genuine wingers in shape of Isgrove/Anderson). Not sure which way he'll go on Saturday against Plymouth? STFC home form remains a puzzle, and has been a puzzle for 2-3 years now. If we go 0-1 down at home, we really struggle to break down sides that sit deep and defend with men behind the ball.

Q: How are former Argyle players Toumani Diagouraga and legend Luke McCormick performing?
DH: Diagouraga's not on the radar, Wellens wanted rid in the summer but we couldn't find a taker. He was a horrid signing by Phil Brown, big wages too. Unfit, immobile, heavy, slow...
McCormick is a really solid goalkeeper, no heart attacks when watching him in between the sticks. He's now got competition from on-loan Swansea man Steven Benda - more of a man mountain. But for now, McCormick is rightfully keeping his place.

Q: Looking from afar what are your views on Plymouth Argyle?
DH: I attended Plymouth University (2007-2010) when Plymouth were a competitive side in the Championship, with large home crowds. Things un-ravelled spectacularly not long after that... and given the consistently strong home crowds in last 2-3 years, I was staggered to see Plymouth fall back down to League 2. A huge club at this level. 
Like STFC have shown in last 2-3 years, adapting back to life in League 2 can be a struggle. Plymouth let Scunthorpe get a point on Saturday, which is encouraging for me. Suspect the Green Army will come on strong after Xmas? Be enough to sneak 7th place?

Q: And finally do you have a prediction for the game?
DH: Highly entertaining game in front of 10,000+ crowd. Hope the weather is good and Town get back to playing attractive attacking football.
Prediction - Swindon Town 3-2 Plymouth Argyle, goals for returning trio of Doughty (penno), Doyle and Baudry.
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Car parking: Swindon Cricket Club, adjacent to the football stadium, has car parking available at £5 per car and I've been assured there is plenty of parking for the huge numbers of Argyle fans attending the game.
The bar at the cricket club will be open to Argyle fans even if you haven't used the car parking facility.
Sat Nav - SN12EE

Pubs for Argyle fans: Aside from the cricket club there is Bar 71 which located by the away turnstiles at the stadium although it tends to fill up quickly. The Merlin on Drove Road welcomes away fans where food is available and Sky Sports shown on numerous TV screens or Swindon town centre is a 15 minute walk from the stadium where there are plenty of pubs.

Swindon's Season

Wednesday

According to Sky Bet Swindon are favourites to win at 19/20, an Argyle win is placed at 5/2 and the drawl also has odds of 5/2.

The Robins have won three and lost three league games at home this season,s coring nine goals and conceding the same amount.

Argyle legend Luke McCormick, wearing the number 23 shirt as usual, has made 14 appearances for Swindon this season while former Pilgrims' midfielder Toumani Diagouraga has played in just one game - a EFL Trophy tie in August.

Argyle have played Swindon a total of 51 times at the County Ground, winning 13 games, drawing eight and losing 30.

More details of beam back

The game will also be screened live around the world on the following channels ....


Ryan Lowe talks about Saturday's game ...

"Our main aim now is the league and it will be a hostile atmosphere on Saturday. We’ve sold our allocation, it’s going to be bouncing and the supporters will be our 12th man, as they always are.
“It’s totally different because there’s players who will come back into my squad. Richie Wellens will probably get some players back into his squad, as he’s given one or two a chance who haven’t played as many games.
“What I do know is that it will be a good entertaining game, two footballing sides locking horns.”

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Thursday

Away fan guide to the County Ground ... Swindon club website and more details .... here as a PDF.

Swindon manager Richie Wellens expects a better performance on Saturday ..... Swindon Advertiser

Ryan Lowe's pre-match press conference ...







What captain Gary Sawyer said about playing against his friend Luke McCormick...


Richie Wellens appeals to Swindon fans to get behind the team ...

“I just sense a little bit of negativity coming into the club – yes, we’ve lost a few games but that is going to happen over a season. I know this club hasn’t had too many good times recently but we can’t be: ‘we won today, we’re going to get promoted’ or ‘we lost today, we’re not going anywhere.’

“It has to be positive – it’s going to be a good crowd on Saturday. Plymouth are going to bring quite a few. So, let’s come on Saturday – let’s get out of this rut.
“Our home form hasn’t been great recently. We need to turn it around. We need the supporters with us from the start.

“I’m not bothered how many supporters Plymouth bring. It’s about us, our supporters, how many supporters turn out for us, how they make the atmosphere and it will be a totally different game.”

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Gary Sawyer talks about the game .... club website

Friday

Stats at Swindon

According to the Transfermarkt website the Swindon squad is valued at £4.41 million while the Argyle squad is worth £3.29 million.



The 2,300 Argyle fans at tomorrow's game is the largest travelling support for a league game since April 2017 when 2,644 members of the Green Army visited Fratton Park for a top of the table clash against Portsmouth. Correction - 3,034 were at Charlton in March 2018. Sorry.

Match preview .... Swindon club website

The game will NOT be shown on iFollow for overseas subscribers but it will be screened around the world .... club website

The club now have updated information and iFollow overseas subscribers CAN now watch the match...

Saturday



There will be a minute’s applause before the game in memory of Swindon legend Peter Downsborough who recently passed away at the age of 76.

Match info pack .... Swindon club website

Argyle will wear the third choice black kit today for the first time in a competitive match.

Ryan Lowe gives an injury update and who might be in the squad today .. club website

The weather forecast during the game is for light persistent rain and light wind with a temperature of 12.

Gary Sawyer talks about returning to play Swindon for the second time in a week ....

"It is familiar for a week, it’s rare, this is the only real chance that you play twice in a week like that but it’s good. I’ve played at Swindon enough times to know what it’s like anyway.

“It does refresh your mind and it’s quite nice, because you can kind of picture what you are going to see before you go to the game. You know how the pitch feels, you know how it works and know how it runs, so it’s definitely a heads up.

“I think we start again, but you have to obviously be upbeat after it.
“If you go into a game playing each other twice in three or four days then it’s not ideal, especially both being away, which is a bit of our luck with fixtures sometimes.

“You’d rather win the game than not and we played well on Tuesday so we can take that into the game and say we’ve got nothing to fear.
 “Swindon are a good side and we know that, but so are we, so it should make for a good game.”

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