MATCH PREVIEW: Swindon v Northampton Town

Swindon Town face a stern test of their promotion credentials as Northampton Town visit the County Ground this Saturday. Total Sport’s Joe Acklam previews the League Two clash.

Scott Lindsey has managed to get Swindon firing in the past few weeks as Town have strung together three wins in a row, including a complete performance against Grimsby where they showed they could do both sides of the game in a 1-0 away win with ten-men for half an hour.

Swindon are also yet to lose at home in the league this season, but second place Northampton come to the County Ground hoping to change that.

Scott Lindsey said in his pre-match press conference: “I have watched them [Northampton] at length this week and they have the top scorer in the league this season in [Sam] Hoskins.

“They have scored 22 goals this season and 12 of them are set pieces, so they are really strong at set pieces and have a long throw as well.

“Mitch Pinnock takes the throw on both sides and he really launches it in, a really flat throw and that makes them really dangerous and it is something that we have been working on.

“I am, however, really confident of stopping them as we have defended set pieces really well this season and only conceded twice from them so far, so I think that our way of defending set pieces has been good.

“This is going to be a very tough game, but I am confident with my players in getting a result.”

Whilst Swindon are playing well at this point in the season, Lindsey and Technical Director Sandro Di Michele have sat down to analyse their performance through the data and see where they can improve.

Lindsey said: “The data told us a few things that I probably knew, but it highlights it more and quantifies things.

“I think we can be tighter at the back and stop Sol [Brynn] from doing as much work as he has been doing, that’s an area we need to address and we are doing.

“At the other end of the pitch, we need to get ourselves in positions where we have clearer chances as opposed to striking from longer distances.

“We are a team that don’t cross it a lot, but we are a team that pick moments to cross from better areas, so we may not cross it as much as a normal League Two team, but we are crossing from strong areas.

“So it has been interesting to see the data and we will try and learn from it.”

In injury news, Rushian Hepburn-Murphy has suffered a new injury upon his return to the team and could be out for up to ten weeks, but Louis Reed is ready for a return following sitting out the victory over Grimsby.