Swindon head into the bank holiday weekend needing a huge swing of results to go in their favour to have any hope of making the play-offs.
After three consecutive draws, Town head into Friday’s game against Cambridge United five points outside the top seven with four games to play.
Positive performances but frustrating results over the last fortnight have dampened Richie Wellens’ side’s play-off hopes heavily.
Last time out, Michael Doughty and Kyle Bennett scored for the visiting side at Oldham, but Johann Branger-Engonne’s late equaliser put an end to any realistic hopes of the play-offs.
The Oppo
The U’s win over Bury effectively sealed their safety two weeks ago – Alex Jones, David Amoo and George Maris got the goals that day to effectively steer Cambridge away from the bottom two.
Two purple patches have effectively been the key to the Cambridgeshire side’s survival – the first kicked off with a 2-0 win at the County Ground back in October that kickstarted a run of four wins in five games.
The second came around in the new year after a 6-0 drubbing handed to them by MK Dons – U’s responded with win over Stevenage, Notts County, and Northampton.
Their recent form has been steady too – Two wins, three draws and three losses in their last eight mean a relatively comfortable end to the 2018/19 campaign for Colin Calderwood’s side.
Head-to-head
17 Feb 2001 Cambridge United v Swindon Town W 0-1 League Division 2
24 Oct 2001 Swindon Town v Cambridge United W 2-0 League Division 2
09 Apr 2002 Cambridge United v Swindon Town W 1-2 League Division 2
30 Sep 2017 Swindon Town v Cambridge United W 2-0 League Two
17 Mar 2018 Cambridge United v Swindon Town W 1-3 League Two
23 Oct 2018 Swindon Town v Cambridge United L 0-2 League Two
The Gaffer
Calderwood took over as Cambridge boss in December 2018, joining on an initial 18-month contract. Swindon fans will, of course, know him from his time at the club between 1985 and 1993 where totted up 330 league appearances.
In ’85, Calderwood arrived at the County Ground for a fee of £27,500 from Mansfield Town and at 21-years-old was made club captain. In his first season at the club, Swindon achieved promotion winning the Fourth Division title and the defender picked up the Adver’s Player of the Year award.
Calderwood and co. made it back to back in 1986/87 this time via the play-offs overcoming Gillingham in the final at Selhurst Park.
The Scot was part of the side that earned promotion to the top division in 1990, winning at Wembley against Sunderland before being demoted to the Third Division due to the irregular payments scandal.
In 1993, after being reinstated to the Second Division, and narrowly staying up in 1990/91, Calderwood aided Town, under the stewardship of Glenn Hoddle, to promotion to the Premier League.
With his contract expiring at the end of the season, the defender joined Tottenham and former manager Ossie Ardilles with a tribunal setting the fee at £1.25million.
He spent five years at White Hart Lane and represented his country and Euro 1996 and the 1998 World Cup. In 1999, he moved to Villa before brief spells with Nottingham Forest and Notts County. Calderwood finished playing in 2001 after a broken leg prevented him from picking his time to retire.
The Cambridge boss’ managerial career started at Northampton Town – after a stint as reserve team manager at Tottenham, Calderwood became manager at Sixfields and guided them to promotion in 2006, setting a new club record for clean sheets.
At the end of the season, the 54-year-old jumped ship to Nottingham Forest in League One – in his second season he, again, took the club up a division winning seven games out of the last nine to achieve second place.
A tricky first season back in the Championship followed and Calderwood was sacked after the club had won just four games before Christmas.
Next up, CC ventured north to Newcastle – as first-team coach and, following relegation, Assistant Manager to Chris Hughton who returned them to the Premier League at the first time of asking.
Three months into the season, Hughton’s assistant left to take the top job at Scottish side Hibernian but this would not be the end of their partnership as they joined forces again as they worked together at both Norwich and Brighton.
Previous to his role Cambridge, Calderwood was assistant to Steve Bruce at Aston Villa.