Town First-Team Coach Ross Embleton has admitted that he’s expecting a real tough test from Chelsea’s Development Side this evening (7.45pm Kick-Off).
Swindon are back in action at The County Ground as they get their Checkatrade Trophy campaign under way.
Chelsea’s U23’s team are first up for Town in a revamped competition that is new to both sides, and Embleton is predicting the Blues to be a real force to be reckoned with throughout the competition.
“It is a new experience for everyone going into a competition like this, both for the bigger clubs and for ourselves," he told swindontownfc.co.uk.
“It is obviously hugely beneficial for clubs like Chelsea to be able to put their young players into this environment, and looking at it from their perspective it is a really big thing for their players’ development.
“It is a different challenge for us altogether. Chelsea are going to be a real big challenge and their recruitment across the board from the age of seven or eight right the way through to what they do with their first-team is why they are one of the biggest clubs in the world.
“We’ve looked at a couple of their games of late and they are very impressive, both physically and tactically.
“I know one or two of the bigger clubs in the competition didn’t get the results they wanted in some of the other groups, but I’m convinced that Chelsea will be a real challenger in the competition this year.
“To have the group stages adds something a little bit different and you’ve got to play for points and there is that added little bonus of if you don’t get off to a good start then you’ve still got a good couple of games to try and bounce back.”
Town are expected to ring the changes this evening and Embleton has urged the club’s fringe players to take their chance with both hands.
“There are boys in the group at the moment that haven’t had many minutes for different reasons, and some will be going out to try and prove a point and show that they are capable of being in the team," he added.
“Hopefully they do that and it will make selection for Luke (Williams) and myself pretty difficult, and also you will have one or two who will be trying to get a few more minutes under their belt for fitness reasons.
“There is a real variation and in truth we would probably like to make as many changes as we possibly could to give everybody that hasn’t been playing an opportunity to play, but there are rules in place to stop that from happening.
“We think we’ve got a good squad and we want everyone to play minutes, so there will certainly be changes ahead of tonight.”
