County v Swindon: Match Thread (24/02/2024)

Alright then, a clean sheet, that's something to build on. So it's on to Swindon, and what can we say about them then?

Well they sit in lowly 18th, albeit 16 points clear of the drop zone so they should be safe - W 10 D 9 L 14 F 57 A 61 - only Rock Bottom Sutton have conceded more (63). Their Goals for is pretty good though - they rank sixth behind Crewe and Wrexham (59 each), Mansfield (62), Notts County (65) and Stockport (66), so a 0-0 looks unlikely, although the unlikely happens often enough in this world! Their A record is humble - W 2 D 6 L 9 F 26 A 39 - which suggests a 2-1 home win. Only Tranmere, Grimsby and Sutton have a worse record on the road.

Their Ws are FGR (a) 1-2, Crawley (h) 6-0, Sutton (h) 5-3, Walsall (h) 2-0, Grimsby (h) 2-1, Newport (h) 2-0, Mansfield (h) 2-1, Accy Stanley (a) 3-4, FGR (h) 2-1 and Bratfut (h) 2-0. Their Ds are Crewe (h) 2-2 on opening day, Wrexham (a) 5-5, Donny (a) 0-0, Morecambe (a) 2-2, Salford (a) 2-2, Harrogate (a) 1-1, Cole U (h) 2-2, Salford (h) 1-1 and Gillingham (a) 2-2. Their Ls are Notts (a) 3-1 - their first L in early Oct), Bratfut (a) 1-0, Gillingham (h) 0-1, MKD (a) 3-2, Cole U (a) 3-1, County (h) 2-4, AFC Wombles (a) 4-0, Barrow (h) 0-3, Tranmere (a) 2-1, Wrexham (h) 0-1, Crawley (a) 3-1, Crewe (a) 2-1, Newport (a) 2-1, MKD (h) 1-2. Just 4 cleans sheets speaks volumes.

After a fairly good start (W 5 D 4 before losing to Notts County at the start of Oct) they have fallen off badly - W 5 D 4 L 14. At the start of Jan their fans were eyeing the trapdoor warily but they should be safe if only because FGR and Rock Bottom Sutton are so poor.

Their top scorer Jake Young, on 16, was on loan from Bratfut, but he went back their in the January window, next comes MF Dan Kemp on 14, he played at Hartlepool last term (9 goals in 16 games) and had previous spells at MKD and Orient after emerging from West Ham's academy. Next comes 6ft 2 veteran Charlie Austin on 9, (he has 48 goals in 106 total games over two spells for the Robins, as well as spells at QPR, WBA, Southampton and Bur*ley. Next is Rushian Hepburn-Murphy, with just 3, he has 8 in 32 games since joining in 2022. He started out at Villa back in 2015. Three players have each bagged a pair and a further 9 have each bagged one goal.

So they depend heavily on a couple of scorers, and one of those has gone back home to Bratfut. He's not the only player on the way out - Remeao Hutton went to Gillingham, and MF Liam Kinsella went to Cheltenham Town. Coming in on loan from MKD was Irish MF Dawson Devoy (he has 43 times for MKD since joining from Bohemians in July 2022. He was followed by permanent signings of Liverpool's striker Paul Glatzel (he had spent two loans at Tranmere scoring 4 times in 17 games) and Southampton's GK Jack Bycroft - he never played for them but he had a series of loans in non league to his name.

Their January window activity was made more complex by the departure, on 15th Jan, of manager Mike Flynn who took over in May 2023 and then signed a contract extension in November. They had won just 3 of their previous 15 games and lost 10 of them.

Flynn's place was taken by the club's "development phase loans manager" Gavin Gunning, and he wasted little time in signing a slew of new players. Notts Forest's D Pharrell Johnson signed permanent terms and Barnsley D Conor McCarthy signed on loan for the remainder of the season (he has previously played for Cork City and St Mirren. They were followed by Irish MF Zack Elbouzedi coming in on loan from Swedish side AIK, he has had previous spells at Bolton and Lincoln City. On deadline day they re-signed striker Harry McKirdy on loan from Hibs (he has previously scored 22 goals in 40 games for Swindon and also played for Carlisle, Newport and Crewe amongst others), fellow striker Aaron Drinan signed permanent terms from Orient (15 goals in 85 games) and winger Sean McGurk signed from Leeds.

So lots of change and a sense that they are building for next season, if ever there was a fairly modest opposition for County to rebuild some confidence against it would be someone like Swindon - fingers crossed, as ever.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in L2:

6th placed (slumping) Barrow v 13th placed Bratfut
20th placed Donny v 9th placed AFC Wombles
8th placed Gillingham v 3rd placed Wrexham
7th placed Harrogate v 16th placed Walsall
2nd placed Mansfield v 19th placed Salford (on a nice little run of form)
5th placed MKD v 15th placed Newport
10th placed Notts County v 4th placed Crewe

A good time to return to form.

Pye on the bench, looks like 3 CHs with Hippolyte and Touray as WBs. Come on County, back to winning ways....

We're just making it hard for ourselves, I'm not even confident of a top three place right now.