MATCH PREVIEW: Swindon v Newport County

Swindon Town will hope to return to winning ways in League Two as Newport County visit the County Ground for the rearranged fixture. Total Sport’s Joe Acklam previews the match.

Town’s three-game winning streak was routed at the weekend by Mitch Pinnock’s 87th minute goal that gave Northampton Town a 2-1 win at the County Ground.

The home double header continues with the Exiles in town off the back of a morale boosting win at the weekend, in which they became the first team in League Two to beat Leyton Orient this season.

Scott Lindsey said of his opposition: “They have gone to a team who are flying high at the top of the table and dominate most games and gone and got a win, so you would expect confidence to be high in their camp.

“I can’t change where they are after that result and we have to prepare no matter what and make sure that we get our own house in order to take on a team who have just won a game where everyone would back that they wouldn’t win.

“You are going to play teams full of confidence in football. Would I prefer to play a team who have lost six on the bounce? Maybe, but that can always kick you in the teeth, so we just have to get on with it.

“I think they are good at [being physical] and they can do that side of it really well. They have two forwards who can get a hold of it and flick things on and be a handful.

“They get runners from midfield and have wide players who are capable as well, so we are in for a tough game.”

Injury-wise, Angus MacDonald has been ruled out with a dislocated collarbone and his return date is not yet known, but the two players taken off as a precaution on Saturday, Tom Clayton and Luke Jephcott, are both fit to start and so is Mathieu Baudry, who returns after illness.

Lindsey also said that following the Northampton game he wants his players to manage games better with regards to referees.

He said: “There is a case of managing referees better, for good and bad. There are times where we are petulant, which I want to try and cut out and there are times when we don’t manage moments in the game when we should.

“For example, for their [Northampton’s] second goal, I felt Ellis [Iandolo] got fouled, but we don’t seem to claim very well and our body language is not telling the referee that it is a foul.

“If we were to have a reaction to what we felt was a foul then possibly we would be given the free-kick.”