League Two Rovers v Swindon

[Rockford's Love Child]

A huge game at Prenton Park on Tuesday night as we face a Swindon side that are one of the main challengers for automatic promotion. After the failure to get an, in my view, deserved victory yesterday, there is perhaps a little bit more pressure on this game.

Swindon's away record this season has been fantastic, but they are currently experiencing a dip in form, with only one victory in their last six games and a defeat at home to Exeter on Saturday. That downturn in results has coincided with the loss of some key players, with striker Simpson recalled from his loan spell by Ipswich, and midfield fulcrum Jack Payne out injured and likely to miss this game. This might be a good time to play them, but it will still be a very tough match. The Robins are a possession based team, so it will be an interesting match up in playing styles.

In terms of our own selection, I think we will field an unchanged line up even if Davies is now fully fit. Mellon rates KP and he has been ok in the last couple of games, albeit the pace and movement of Swindon's danger man Harry McKirdy could test him in this game. I think Hemmings, Glatzel and Hawkes will all keep their places.

We have got a terrible recent record against Swindon, but talk of a 'hoodoo' is just superstitious rubbish really, and the personnel of both sides is radically different to previous encounters.

A draw would not be a terrible result provided we win at Walsall next Saturday, but I am hopeful we can nick it.

 

[bigmart]

A tough game but one we are capable of winning, hoping for a home win 2 1.

 

[Ian]

Hopefully we can get back to winnings ways on Tues night and put some daylight between us and 3rd. It will be a tough one no doubt but our home form is good, theirs is currently not so I think we'll be able to find enough to win and hopefully we'll see Hemmings get off the mark.

This is the first time in many years that wont be attending a home match due to COVID reasons and to top it off, it's my sons birthday, he was really looking forward to going, so I'll have to settle for iFollow coverage. Let's win this boys!

 

[bigmart]

Hopefully we can get back to winnings ways on Tues night and put some daylight between us and 3rd. It will be a tough one no doubt but our home form is good, theirs is currently not so I think we'll be able to find enough to win and hopefully we'll see Hemmings get off the mark.

This is the first time in many years that wont be attending a home match due to COVID reasons and to top it off, it's my sons birthday, he was really looking forward to going, so I'll have to settle for iFollow coverage. Let's win this boys!

Sorry to hear that, hope all well with you and all your family, take care

 

[Sparky]

Could really do with a win and McKirdy always impressed me when at his previous clubs.
I don’t think our record against the top 7 is any good this season and it remains to be seen whether in this sort of game can we keep them out and or have enough to score more than the odd one

 

[Sparky]

This is the start of a testing run of fixtures with 6 out of the next 9 games against teams in the top 10.

 

[ONIGP]

This is the start of a testing run of fixtures with 6 out of the next 9 games against teams in the top 10.

Let's hope some of them are no longer in the Top Ten after losing points to us!

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

This is the start of a testing run of fixtures with 6 out of the next 9 games against teams in the top 10.

However, after that it gets much easier with only Exeter at home against a top side. So, we just need to hold our own for the next few weeks. My fear is that we can win a lot of games 1-0 against mid-table sides but may occasionally concede an unlucky equaliser, as on Saturday. When playing the better sides, our defence is less solid and our attack even less effective. We need Hemmings and Glatzel to finally click.

BTW, some interesting stats. If you consider clubs down to Harrogate but excluding Salford as our main rivals, our record at home is four defeats, but away is a one win and four draws. Seven points out of 27 and all gained away from home! Against the worst fourteen teams, we have a 100% home record. Away we have won three, drawn three and lost to Rochdale and Scunthorpe.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

It does not matter where the points come from as long as we reach 80-85 by the end of the season. If our form of the first two thirds of the season is repeated in the final third we will achieve our goal, and I don't see any reason why we should not, as our squad is stronger now than it was in August.

We have played every team in the division at least once, and we are above everybody bar Forest Green.

Nine wins and a few draws from the remaining seventeen games and we are up.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

When playing the better sides, our defence is less solid.

With the exception of the game against Forest Green last week, this is not really true. We did not concede a goal in three away games against Port Vale, Swindon and FGR for example.

We have conceded so few goals overall that our defensive record against the top sides must still be excellent relative to other teams.

 

[aldoes mustache]

After today no team talks, just Thinking of a young Angel that should' be all the motivation they need

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

It does not matter where the points come from as long as we reach 80-85 by the end of the season. If our form of the first two thirds of the season is repeated in the final third we will achieve our goal, and I don't see any reason why we should not, as our squad is stronger now than it was in August.

I'm not arguing with that. It's self-evident. I agree that our squad is better, but our remaining fixtures are significantly tougher than up to now. We have just seven home games to play including five of our rivals and just two of the lower teams. We have ten away games and we have been picking up about half as many points per game away compared with home. I am confident we will do it, but we will need to improve to earn points at the same rate.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I'm not arguing with that. It's self-evident. I agree that our squad is better, but our remaining fixtures are significantly tougher than up to now. We have just seven home games to play including five of our rivals and just two of the lower teams. We have ten away games and we have been picking up about half as many points per game away compared with home. I am confident we will do it, but we will need to improve to earn points at the same rate.

Our remaining fixtures are not significantly tougher. We have already played every team at least once, so by definition they are not more difficult.

There is not a disparity between the number of home and away fixtures remaining - we have got eight at home and nine away - and if we are playing the currently struggling sides away from home, that increases the likelihood that our points return from away games will continue to improve. We have not lost away from home since Mansfield in October.

Making comparisons of the 'difficulty' of fixtures at different stages of the season is in many respects flawed anyway, because the league table is fluid. A number of teams that are in mid table or lower now were closer to the top when we played them (Harrogate being one example).

 

[Goody Two Shoes]

I’d argue that each game is as tough as the next. Aside from the Scunthorpe game, result wise, we’ve had to fight tooth and nail for positive results.
Would be good to add a positive result tonight, which have been few and far between against Swindon, but we’ll have to be at our best regardless of who makes up their squad. Any disappointment from Barrow would be dissipated with a win. Is there a link with the wind as our performances against FGR and Barrow weren’t our best, or is that just hot air from me?

 

[Boz]

Probably an unchanged team tonight unless there are some injuries that have been kept quiet. I don’t have a problem with that though if the starting xi aren’t able to get us in front then make changes earlier. Tactical subs made very late in the game are usually only valuable in wasting time.

On Goody’s point, don’t think the wind played a significant part in the FGR game. Haven’t seen Barrow highlights yet and there have been other games where the wind worked for us.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

Our remaining fixtures are not significantly tougher. We have already played every team at least once, so by definition they are not more difficult.

There is not a disparity between the number of home and away fixtures remaining - we have got eight at home and nine away - and if we are playing the currently struggling sides away from home, that increases the likelihood that our points return from away games will continue to improve. We have not lost away from home since Mansfield in October.

Making comparisons of the 'difficulty' of fixtures at different stages of the season is in many respects flawed anyway, because the league table is fluid. A number of teams that are in mid table or lower now were closer to the top when we played them (Harrogate being one example).

I must remember not to do my calculations late in the evening! But seriously, the remaining fixtures will be a tougher. The difference between our home and away form is bigger than for any other team in L2. We have lost at home to the other top five teams and five of our remaining eight games are against promotion rivals, starting tonight. That can work both ways, of course. If we can start beating our rivals at home, we will almost certainly get promoted.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I must remember not to do my calculations late in the evening! But seriously, the remaining fixtures will be a tougher. The difference between our home and away form is bigger than for any other team in L2. We have lost at home to the other top five teams and five of our remaining eight games are against promotion rivals, starting tonight. That can work both ways, of course. If we can start beating our rivals at home, we will almost certainly get promoted.

I don't see how the fixtures are any more difficult than what has gone before.

We have eight at home, nine away, seven against teams in the top ten, and ten against sides in mid table or the bottom half.

It is an even spread in terms of difficulty, as you would expect with seventeen games remaining as it is still a substantial part of the season.

 

[Ian]

It’s still too early to tell and still plenty of points to play for. The fun begins when we get the real 6-pointers with a few games to go.

 

[Sparky]

Swindon have the second best away record in league two and won at forest green. They’ve only lost 3 out of 14 away games so whether we still have enough goals in us to get 3 points will be tested tonight

 

[Goody Two Shoes]

Probably an unchanged team tonight unless there are some injuries that have been kept quiet. I don’t have a problem with that though if the starting xi aren’t able to get us in front then make changes earlier. Tactical subs made very late in the game are usually only valuable in wasting time.

On Goody’s point, don’t think the wind played a significant part in the FGR game. Haven’t seen Barrow highlights yet and there have been other games where the wind worked for us.

It certainly didn’t affect FGR!