MATCH PREVIEW: Northampton Town vs Swindon

Swindon Town will be hoping to upset the odds against Northampton Town as they look to turn their season around. Total Sport’s Joe Acklam previews the League Two clash.

Town have managed to win just once in their last seven matches across all competitions and have struggled to convert chances and this has caused many in the fan base to question the direction the team is headed in.

Scott Lindsey said that he shares the fans frustrations surrounding the lack of goals, but maintains that the team have the right intentions in forward areas.

He said: “I feel the pain, I am exactly the same as the supporters because we do a lot of work on the training ground.

“It is difficult, because we have been putting the balls into the box, in terms of stats we have the highest box entries, the most touches in the opposition’s box, and the possession stats are very good.

“We are doing everything we can, we are just finding it difficult to put the ball in the back of the net.

“It is fine lines, there are different variables that happen in a game, things don’t drop the right side of you or we don’t get the right contact.

“We have to keep believing and keep going and something will go in off someone’s ear and all of a sudden we will be off and running.”

Swindon travel to Sixfields to take on a Northampton who are experiencing almost the exact opposite of Town’s recent fortunes, with no defeats and four wins in their last nine.

Scott Lindsey said: “People think they are quite direct, which they are to a degree, but they use their back four really well to get out.

“They spread quite wide, the full-backs go really high, and they use the whole pitch really well so they are quite expansive in many ways.

“They have some really good players in the middle of the pitch and make it really hard to press them.

“We have done some work this morning on how we defend set pieces, which we have been good at even if on Boxing Day we weren’t.

“We have assessed that with the players and walked through a lot of scenarios hoping that we can nullify their threats from those situations.”

Injury-wise it would appear as through the Swindon squad have gotten over the worst of the flu which was spreading around the camp, and Luke Jephcott is available to return to the squad after recovering from the injury he sustained at Crawley.

Northampton won the reverse fixture of this after Mitch Pinnock turned home a late free-kick to seal a 2-1 defeat, but overall Swindon have had the upper hand in this fixture with 62 wins for Swindon to 53 for Northampton.

Town have also been good for some late heroics at Sixfields, with Jordan Lyden and Alan McCormack both getting late winners there against Northampton, and Michael Smith scored a 90th minute winner to get Swindon a 2-1 win in 2014 when Coventry City were playing home games there.