Town First-Team Coach Ross Embleton feels this weekend’s Derby Day clash away at Bristol Rovers is the perfect opportunity for his side to return to winning ways.
In what is the first of two huge games in as many weeks, the Reds will make the short trip to the Memorial Stadium on Saturday (12:30pm Kick-Off) hoping to bounce back after defeat to Peterborough United last time out.
And with Oxford United to follow a week on Sunday, Embleton is hoping to kick-off a big fortnight with a victory against Rovers.
“They are two big games for us and we want to try and get back to winning ways,” he told swindontownfc.co.uk.
“That feeling after winning away at Bolton Wanderers was a really positive one and we want to make sure we experience that again very soon.
“The fact that the next two games are derbies obviously adds to the excitement and everybody is eager to play those games and we know what it means to the supporters and we know what it means to everybody involved at the club.
“We want to try and get two positive results and that would be fantastic if we could achieve that goal.
“Obviously we don’t want to look too far ahead so Bristol Rovers is the priority at the moment.
“We feel as if though we owe them because we had a game postponed where we felt we were really dominant earlier in the season, and then we obviously didn’t follow that up the second time we played them.
“We really want to go there, put on a good performance and get back to winning ways.”
Embleton is well aware of the threats the Gas pose but has also called on his players to keep calm and focus on the task at hand in the heat of a Derby Day battle.
“We know where their goals come from and we don’t want to focus too much on them, but we have to be aware of their threats that they pose and we know they are going to create chances at home,” he continued.
“It is about us making sure we stop that threat and then impose ourselves on them.
“Bristol Rovers are going to be a difficult opponent and the intensity will crank up a little bit because it is a derby but, at the same time, we’ve got to make sure we respect the fact that there is a real intensity to the game and how much everyone wants to win but we’ve got to go out and make sure we deliver a performance.
“We want to see our players full of passion, we want to see our players want to work hard and we want to see them go and deliver a performance but on any big occasion, whether it is a derby game or a cup final, it is about the ones who go and deliver in that cauldron like atmosphere.
“We want to make sure we have the players in our team who can come out and control that emotion and go get a result.”
Finally, around 1,000 Town fans are expected to be out in force at The Memorial Stadium this weekend and Embleton truly believes they will have a big part to play throughout the course of the 90 minutes.
“The big thing we can say about our supporters is that they are always vocal, they are always heard and they always put on a show and we can always hear them backing the team,” he added.
“The more backing we can get will hopefully inspire the boys to go on and put on a real good performance.
“It was great to pay back the travelling support away at Bolton with a really good performance and hopefully we can put on another display like that this weekend and show off to a really big following.
“That is what they are all coming to see and hopefully we can provide that for them.”
