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MATCH PREVIEW: Swindon v Hartlepool United

Swindon Town will be looking for back-to-back wins for the second time this season when they welcome bottom of the table Hartlepool United to the County Ground. Total Sport’s Joe Acklam previews Saturday’s fixture.

Last Saturday Swindon beat Colchester United 1-0 courtesy of a ricochet off of Tyrese Shade to send them eighth in the table and one point off the play-off spots.

This weekend’s visitors are Keith Curle’s Hartlepool who have won just one game this season but Scott Lindsey said they have still been a difficult team to prepare for.

He said: “Keith Curle sides are difficult to play against because I don’t even know what formation they are going to play.

“He has changed formation in nearly every game, so that is going to make it difficult to prep the team in terms of how we press and what we do without the ball when we don’t even know what team they are going to pick or certainly what formation they are going to play.

“That is a challenge straight away. He is an experienced manager who has won promotion out of this league already with Northampton a few years back.

“I don’t think the fact they lost 6-0 on Tuesday means very much as it is a different game now because we have to concentrate on the next game.

“It was a different competition and they made changes to their starting line-up and then again around 65 minutes, so I would presume the team we are going to play on Saturday will be a different team to the one that played on Tuesday night.”

Lindsey also spoke about Jacob Wakeling and how he has been faring playing in a wider role and his wider expectations of his wingers.

He said: “I think one of his best performances was Grimsby away, I thought he was outstanding in that position [right wing], he put in a defensive shift and he caused them problems throughout the game.

“We are asking him not just to stay wide, we are not asking Jonny [Williams] to do it on the other side or Shades [Tyrese Shade] or whoever plays out there, we are asking them to come in off the shape and almost become a second striker when the ball is on the other side.

“We don’t want to be a 433 where our wingers are staying wide because they aren’t that type of player, we want them to come in and finding pockets of space and creating different passing lines.

“And if we are doing that then we need to have width from elsewhere, so that would be the full-backs, so it is aggressive but when we play teams with one up front then we can do it as we are happy to leave our centre backs two v one at the back.”

Wakeling has been limited in training this week due to a knock to his hip in order to keep him fit for the weekend, and Reece Devine has also been missing from training this week due to a slight injury but will return next week.

Angus MacDonald is a week away from an injection that will aid his rehabilitation, but he and Rushian Hepburn-Murphy are the only long term absentees.

Swindon have the upper hand when it comes to the head-to-head record, winning the last two meetings and having not lost to the Pools since 2009.

Historically this match-up has also gone in the favour of Town, having an all-time win percentage against Saturday’s visitors of 61.3% and having lost only six times in 31 meetings.

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Swindon Town FC

Swindon Town Football Club

STFC are Swindon's top football team, based at The County Ground Stadium.

The County Ground, County Road, Swindon, Wiltshire , SN1 2ED

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