Preview | Swindon Town (h) | League Two

Published: 03/10/2023 13:22

Author: Richard Ogando

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water the challenges keep coming for Luke Williams and his band of merry men in a month that has the potential to raise as many questions as it does answers on just how good a team Notts really are.

It's first versus third in tonight's League Two headliner at Meadow Lane and quite possibly the toughest test yet for the hosts.

Swindon Town, under the guidance of Michael Flynn are one of just two sides in League Two who remain unbeaten, the others being Notts' opponents on the 14th October, Mansfield.

Swindon are currently the leagues top scorers with 26 goals, just three more than Notts who are joint third highest with Wrexham on 23 goals. And goals is something you can pretty much guarantee tonight with both teams not unaccustomed to high scoring games with Notts seeing 16 goals in their last two outings and Swindon scoring 5 or more on three occasions including a 6-0 win over second place Crawley Town and a 5-5 draw away at Wrexham.

Expect Flynn to set his team up very similar to Notts but in a 3-4-1-2 formation. This might transition slightly into a slightly more negative 3-5-2 in an attempt to match Notts up in key areas.

The key man in either formation for Swindon is 24 year old Dan Kemp who is a real handful playing as a number 10 and has 7 goals and 4 assists to his name already this season. Ahead of him is the leagues current top scorer 22 year old Jake Young. The striker has 9 goals and 3 assists to his name in the league this season and along with Kemp will provide the Notts rear guard with their toughest test of the season so far.

Swindon also have there own David McGoldrick story with experienced forward Charlie Austin back playing for the club where his professional career started after impressing in non-league for his home town club Hungerford and later Poole Town. The 34 year old who has turned out for Burnley, QPR, Southampton and West Brom has 3 goals and 2 assists in the league this season and will offer a physical and aerial threat to the Notts defence.

Notts will be looking to bounce back after a quite remarkable defeat away at Colchester on Saturday and other than long term injuries to Cedwyn Scott and Geraldo Bajrami has a fully fit squad to select from. It is likely John Bostock will start again alongside Matty Palmer meaning another game on the bench for Sam Austin with all three of Jodi Jones, Dan Crowley and Aaron Nemane likely to start.

Whilst Swindon offer a worrying attacking threat they can be got at in defence and we know Notts have one of the best attacking forces in the league.

Remarkably the bookies seem to have Notts as odds on favourites with 87/100 the best you will get for a home win at the time of writing. Otherwise you can get 11/4 on a Swindon win and 13/4 for the draw.

Based on these odds the results probabilities work out as 53.48% for a Notts win, 26.67% for a Swindon win and 23.53% for the draw.

Whatever the final result it would be a miracle if this game ended up goalless, but then this is football and stranger things have happened!

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