Swindon Town result against Doncaster could spark season revival

A brace from John Obika in March 2016 was the last time Town came out on top against Doncaster at the County Ground, which was Swindon’s first clean sheet at home that season as now-Swansea manager Luke Williams guided the club to a 15th place finish.

At the time of that tie, Swindon were 11th and Doncaster were in 19th, both in League One. But now the tables have turned with the two clubs now playing their trade in the fourth division, with one being near the top of the table, and the other is nine points behind.

To give credit to Mark Kennedy and his side, it was a much-needed positive period of football last week in terms of results, with two wins and a total of seven goals scored and it provides momentum going into a tie where they’ll be up against it.

It’s opinionated when it comes to how good last week was because it was a win against a rotated Bristol Rovers side and three points against struggling Cheltenham which became nervy very quickly.

It’s important to say that winning games brings confidence to the squad and with a few players returning from injury it could either be back to the drawing board or a real sign of intent and improvement. We’ve seen glimpses of what this team can do in previous games this season, but it’s important to stop the mistakes and bring out more of the positives, but that’s easier said than done.

The Town boss thinks that his side have been unlucky at home this season: “As playing staff and technical staff, we really feel we’ve been unlucky, we’ve been unfortunate and we’ve always felt we’re very close to getting good results and that’s why for me this year with the group, confidence has never been wavered, it’s never been an issue.

“We’ve never gone into a game feeling like we’re not playing well or we’re underdogs or we’re going to struggle to win today.

“I would say it’s been quite the opposite. We’ve not won certain games; I can think of three particular draws where we should have won the game but it wasn’t to be.

“We’ve got a bright group of players that can see that. They see what they’re doing in training, they see how they’re performing and they can see the process that we’re working on everyday.

“Hopefully we can get the results that I believe that their performances deserve.”

Jonny Williams trying to win the ball in the air against Doncaster two seasons ago (Image: Andy Crook)

In terms of injuries and squad news, Harry Smith is back training alongside Kabongo Tshimanga but the status of Aaron Drinan is unclear. Kennedy also dropped hints that Botan Ameen could be appearing in the U18s game and won't feature in the first-team squad.

Doncaster will be going into the tie with two players in doubt of making the squad, captain Richard Wood and Zain Westbrooke.

Speaking to club media, Rovers’ manager Grant McCann discussed his knowledge of Mark Kennedy and Swindon’s form.

“It's gonna be a tough game, they are unbeaten in their last four in all competitive games.

“I know Mark a little bit in terms of I played against his team when he was at Lincoln, so I know he's a good manager and a good coach and he'll have his team playing in the right way.

“I expect a tough game as it always is at Swindon but we've worked on what we think we can do and bring to the table on the day.

“So ultimately, we just have to go there and produce our best performance individually and collectively and hopefully try and get the three points.”

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