MATCH PREVIEW: Walsall vs Swindon

Swindon Town will be hoping for more of the same in Gavin Gunning’s second game in interim charge away against Walsall. Total Sport’s Joe Acklam previews the League Two clash.

Swindon are yet to find a permanent successor to Scott Lindsey, but Gunning’s first game in temporary charge could hardly have gone any better with a 5-0 win against Grimsby.

Gunning is hoping that the sudden flurry of goals last weekend was no new manager bounce and they can have sustained success moving forward.

He said: “The boys are buzzing and the atmosphere has been great in the building, everyone to a man has been a part of that.

“There is no one person in this building that can take credit for everything that happened last weekend.

“We were on a bit of a lull and we weren’t performing well and it just feels like the boys can take this into the weekend and it is not just a bit of a bounce.

“Hopefully it is one where we have the right game plan and directed our message across with how we are going to defeat Walsall.

“I am confident in my ability to deliver a message to a team, it is not just me, it is a team effort, it is not the Gavin Gunning Show, there is a group that is delivering a message and I think it has gone across well.”

The 31-year-old also said there were no real ill effects of the managerial search dragging on, and that the players were fully focused on the task at hand.

Gunning said: “The players are great and everyone has been fine, you get paid to be here and this is your job.

“It is like someone going into MacDonald’s and saying ‘I am not giving the burgers out because there is a new manager coming in’.

“It is simple, you get paid to be here and so do your job well.

“It doesn’t matter to me either [that there is uncertainty], I am paid to do a job and I will do it to the best of my ability and try and give the team a proper structure and have a plan in place to go towards the weekend and see what happens.

“Whatever will be will be, you never know what will happen in the future, but all my thought process is on Walsall.”

Swindon lost to Walsall as recently as Boxing Day, when a last-minute Manny Monthe header sunk Town and the Saddlers are on a good run, having lost just twice since the start of October.

There is also plenty of very recent history between the two clubs, with five meetings in the last 13 months, Swindon came out on top on three occasions last season but have lost both clashes this term.

For the last time Swindon lost a league match at the Bescot, you have to go all the way back to November 2008, when a Billy Paynter strike proved insufficient in a 2-1 loss.