Swindon v Daggers Preview



Tomorrow night, we travel to Swindon Town Football Club for our 34th fixture of the season. Like a lot of clubs we have encountered in the previous few weeks Swindon have had a drastic collapse in fortunes in the matter of a few years. It was only in 2 years ago this summer that Swindon were in the League One Play Off Final at Wembley where had it not been for a bobble on the home of football, Charlie Austin would have equalised for Swindon and they could have been playing Championship football. Unfortunately for The Robins, they lost that play off final to South London club Millwall and were relegated with ourselves as they finished 24th with just 41 points. An unsuccessful season for Swindon meant that former Pompey boss Paul Hart was relieved of his duties and in came West Ham legend Paulo Di Canio as manager. The Italian took his time to come to terms with the 4th tier of English football but seems to be coping now as he has brought in 19 players permanently and had 8 players loaned in also this season in order to put his own mark on the league's high flyers.

The boys at Swindon's main rivals Oxford 3 weeks ago...

Recent Form

Swindon currently sit top of the league with 67 points and with a game in hand over 2nd placed Cheltenham and 3rd placed Southend. Unfortunately for us they may be gunning to take out some frustration after losing to their fierce rivals Oxford on Saturday despite Oxford being down to 10 men for a long period of the game. However, before this Swindon had won their last 10 games in the league showing you just how good their form has been of late. Di Canio's men have scored 56 goals this campaign and only conceded 25 goals with the best goal difference in the league.

However, the Daggers have gone on a mini run of their own in the past week as we are now unbeaten in 3 games taking 7 points out of a possible 9 in the past week. We have also won our last two games away at Morecambe last Tuesday and at home to Bradford on Saturday. The Daggers have also kept two clean sheets in their last 3 games showing a new and resilient defence with the back four of McCrory, Arbs, Spillane and Doe with on loan keeper Jon Bond between the sticks.

Previous Meetings

The Daggers are a bit of a bogey team to Swindon as the hosts have never beaten us in the league as we have now played them 3 times. Two home victories for John Still's men with a 2-1 win last season and a 1-0 win thanks to a Mark Arber penalty in the reverse fixture this season. The Daggers also earned themselves a late point in the game at The County Ground last season with a late Jon Nurse header in what has to be said was probably one of the more memorable away games of last season. The Daggers will have to be on the top of their game to keep this record up as they prepare to play against the best Swindon side we've played yet.

Team News

Swindon look to have no fresh injuries or suspensions from Saturday's Derby game however Di Canio may opt to make changes after the weekend's defeat. With a near fully fit squad to choose from, the Italian has a lot to choose from as he is expected to start two former Daggers legends striker Paul Benson and winger Matt Ritchie who could cause many problems to the solid Daggers defence.

The Daggers will be relatively unchanged but it wouldn't be a surprise to see no Matt Saunders in the side due to his injury after his winner on Saturday whose ankle is still swelling up and the game may come too soon for him. This would mean either Billy Bingham or the recently returned ex Swindon man Ahmed Abdulla will come into the side. There may be a start for Brian Woodall after the impact he made on Saturday as the team may need to be rotated slightly with a packed fixture list in March.

One to Watch:

As much as I'd like to give to this to either Ritchie or Benno, two great servants of the Daggers who I highly rate, I've decided to give it to another Swindon player I highly rate which is central midfielder Simon Ferry. The Celtic graduate has been at Swindon for 3 years now making 106 appearances for the club scoring 4 goals in his time there. Ferry is a very accomplished central midfielder and will be a difficult opponent for Ogogo and whoever his central midfielder partner will be tomorrow night.

24 year old Simon Ferry is an exciting prospect for Swindon

Prediction

Tomorrow night will be a huge ask of the boys who are playing the best side in this league. I'm quite disappointed about a month ago, the Robins were 12/1 to win the league and I passed up the opportunity to make a few quid. However, despite this all the pressure is on them to win and this may work in our advantage as we can play with more freedom on a wider pitch which should suit our wingers ex Colchester man Medhi Elito and on loan Saints winger Ben Reeves. A positive result would be huge for the boys tomorrow but is not essential. After tomorrow's game, we have a string of games which will enviably make or break our season in my opinion. I am expecting a considerable lower away attendance to the last time we were at the County Ground when we took 337 however I will be in attendance and with Swindon averaging just under 8,000 there recently, a big crowd is expected as always. I will post my report of the game sometime Wednesday, hope you have enjoyed my work as always. Stay Positive. Believe. We are Dagenham.

The boys at Plymouth.