MATCH PREVIEW: Swindon v Crewe Alexandra

Swindon Town look to extend their unbeaten run to six games as they welcome Crewe Alexandra to the County Ground this Saturday. Total Sport’s Joe Acklam previews the League Two clash.

Swindon recovered from conceding another early goal to earn a draw against Tranmere Rovers last weekend courtesy of Jacob Wakeling’s first goal in eight games.

Scott Lindsey switched to a 352 last weekend, but he said he would like to be able to find a consistent system in the near future.

He said: “What is important for me is to try and get a bit of continuity, even though we have played a few different formations, I am not somebody who likes to chop and change.

“I would like to get to a point where we are settled within a formation, we might have to tinker now again, but I want to find that consistency.

“We played the 433 for a number of weeks and it did us good as during that period we went nine unbeaten.

“But I felt it suited Jacob Wakeling more to play down the middle and in my opinion [Luke] Jephcott can’t play in a wider position.

“So we looked at that and thought that those two would definitely cause problems to any defensive line in League Two, so whether that is playing a 352, a diamond, or even a 442, we want them to play together.

“But ideally we would want an overload in the middle of the pitch as well, because that is important to the way that we play.”

This weekend’s opposition are relegated Crewe, who have won their last two games in all competitions under new manager Lee Bell, but Lindsey said he was not overly surprised that the teams who came down from League One last season are finding life difficult a league below.

He said: “I think the gap between League One and League Two is not as big as you would imagine, there are a lot of teams in the bottom half of League One that I would be happy playing against.

“I don’t think there is a big gap between it and of the teams that have come down only Doncaster are in the top ten and Gillingham have certainly struggled.

“Crewe are finding a little bit of form now and I think it maybe because of getting relegated that they have taken time to turn that momentum around.

“But time will tell, they might well find their way out of trouble.”

As expected having not been in the squad last week, Tyrese Shade is out with a minor hamstring problem, but will be back in training next week, as will Angus MacDonald and Tom Clayton.

Swindon have managed to win three of their last four encounters against Crewe and across history Town do have the upper hand with 21 wins out of the 43 meetings.