MATCH PREVIEW: Swindon Town v Exeter City

Swindon Town host fellow play-off hopefuls Exeter City at the County Ground on Saturday as they look to get their promotion bid back on track following a period of three consecutive league draws. Total Sport Swindon’s Joe Acklam previews the upcoming encounter.

Last recording victory at home on the opening day of the year sees Swindon placed 7th in the League Two standings and Ben Garner’s side will be hoping for a change in fortunes as they seek to maintain their hold on the playoff places.

Big wins against promotion rivals Northampton Town and Port Vale either side of an away defeat to Mansfield at the start of January gave Swindon fans strong hopes for a push on the automatic promotion places. However a flurry of outgoings to key personnel in the January transfer window disrupted Town’s progress.

The departures of Alex Gilbert, Tyreece Simpson, Kaine Kesler-Hayden, and Romoney Crichlow during the transfer window knocked Swindon’s form as new incomings look to gel into the squad, but with a period of training behind them, Garner will be hoping the likes of Louie Barry, Joe Tomlinson, and Josh Davison will be firing on all cylinders.

Exeter arrive in Wiltshire with their own promotion hopes in mind with the Grecians taking 7 points from their previous 3 matches and sitting one place behind Swindon in the table and just two points behind with a game in hand.

Swindon and Exeter are yet to meet this season after their Boxing Day clash at St James Park was cancelled due to coronavirus but Swindon winning this fixture just once on the last ten occasions makes for glum reading.

The last league meeting between the two was during Town’s League Two title-winning season of 2019/20 when a crowd of over 13,000 witnessed Eoin Doyle’s return in a 2-1 win for the Robins, where Hallam Hope and an own goal from Archie Collins proving enough to overcome a goal from Randell Williams.

Striker Matt Jay is one player Swindon’s defence will have to be wary of with the visitor’s danger man now into double-figure goals for the second consecutive season and Exeter’s attack force combing to score 7 times since the turn of the year.

Injury news for the two sides sees Matt Taylor without on-loan striker Offrande Zanzala for their visit to SN1 after the 25-year-old picked up an injury against Walsall and is expected for a six-week spell on the sidelines.

Swindon are boosted by the return of Mathieu Baudry following his injury lay off however playmaker Jack Payne remains unavailable through injury despite him joining in with team training for the first time during his recovery period on Thursday. 

Deadline day loan signing Joe Tomlinson is eligible to make his debut for the club following his loan move from Peterborough but is expected to start on the bench.