Swindon head into Saturday’s game with Notts County on a poor run of form in October.

It’s been a winless month, bar a victory in Checkatrade Trophy against Plymouth, and Town have struggled for goals but will be looking to change their fortunes against the Magpies.

Swindon lost 2-0 at home to Cambridge United in the week after going two goals down in the first 12 minutes.

The Oppo

Notts County started the season dismally – not picking up a single win in August and manager, Kevin Nolan, was sacked following defeat to Lincoln City at Sincil Bank.

Since then, under the stewardship of Harry Kewell, results have picked up – they strung together three wins on the bounce against Crewe, Crawley and Macclesfield before losing 4-0 to Bury and then Mk Dons; both away from home.

Those results have kept them in the bottom three on 12 points only above Cheltenham and Macclesfield Town.

Head-to-head

Town have good recent record against their hosts on Saturday – they’ve won four out of the last six games between the two.

Last time out, a Luke Norris goal was enough to see off the Magpies at the County Ground; however, the last time Town won at Meadow Lane was back in December 2014. That day, Mark Cooper’s men ran out 3-0 winners thanks to an Andy Williams brace and Massimo Luongo’s finish.

18 Oct 2013         Swindon Town v Notts County    W            2-0          League One

26 Apr 2014        Notts County v Swindon Town    L              2-0          League One

13 Dec 2014        Notts County v Swindon Town    W            0-3          League One

07 Mar 2015       Swindon Town v Notts County    W            3-0          League One

12 Sep 2017        Notts County v Swindon Town    L              1-0          League Two

30 Dec 2017        Swindon Town v Notts County    W            1-0          League Two

The Gaffer

This is the second time Town will face a Harry Kewell team this season – Phil Brown’s team drew with Kewell’s Crawley at Broadfield Stadium back in August.

As a player, Kewell spent an illustrious early career with Leeds, where he spent two years as a youth-teamer, before going on to make 181 appearances for the West Yorkshire club.

He scored 45 goals while at Elland Road, before moving to Liverpool, the team he supported as a boy, where he spent five years – the most notable of his achievements while on Merseyside came in the famous 2005 Champions League Final. Kewell became the first Australian-born player to win the trophy after Liverpool came from 3-0 down at half-time to beat AC Milan on penalties.

In the 2007 Final – Kewell appeared as a second-half substitute as Liverpool fell to Milan 2-1 in Athens. After that, Kewell spent time at Galatasaray, Melbourne Victory, Al-Gharafa and Melbourne Hart, retiring in 2014.

Kewell took steps in management and was at Watford’s academy, where he spent two years before taking over at Crawley Town in 2017.