Richie Wellens is under no illusions of the threat that Tranmere, and one man in particular, pose as he prepares to travel to Prenton Park this weekend.
The SWA’s top scorer is also League Two’s top goal-getter, James Norwood, and he sits on 19 goals so far this season.
Wellens believes that they’ve picked up momentum from their promotion from the National League last season and that Norwood is a key part of that.
“They were obviously one of the biggest clubs in the Conference, and they’ve taken that momentum when they’ve come up to carry on. I know Micky (Mellon) really well and they’ve got someone in their team who’s scored 19 goals this season – so it’s quite evident where the threat is going to come from.
“Norwood is a striker in form, takes every opportunity to shoot, doesn’t complicate things – he’s not prepared to wait for the perfect opportunity to score – he’s happy to shoot through bodies so he scores a lot of different kinds of goals.
“They’re quite solid but it’s up to us to try and keep on building on what we’ve been doing, keep our intensity levels up, be defensively strong, but also take the game to them.”
On injuries, the Swindon boss updated on the availability of loan striker, Ben House.
“Ben House trained today – we worked him hard, because he can do the running side of it but you’re wary of a dead leg because you don’t want another knock on it.”
Town announced the arrival of Peter Shirtliff as first-team coach, and Wellens said it was simply to add an experienced pair of eyes to his backroom staff.
“Pete’s here because I said three or four weeks ago that I wanted someone here on a daily basis who added a bit more experience, sees the game differently to me. Sometimes I can be too passionate on the training pitch, and Pete’s calmer – he stands back a bit more when I can get my vision clouded.”
