Swindon’s fixture against Walsall on Saturday is the 99th between the two clubs - the Robins last win against them being back in November 2015 in a 2-1 victory at the County Ground with Louis Thompson snatching a 90th minute winner.
However, since then, Walsall have inflicted a draw and two defeats leaving the Robins looking to pursue a first win in four years against The Saddlers.
A win against Walsall on Saturday would see Richie Wellens’ side complete a hat-trick of positive results in League Two, having beaten Stevenage and Crawley, comfortably, in their previous two games.
Opposition:
This weekend’s opposition visit the County Ground in poor form having not picked up a single point in October.
Their last points coming in at the back end of September in a 3-2 win away to Crawley Town, leaving them hovering just one point above the relegation zone.
Darrell Clarke’s side will look to bounce-back from a run of five consecutive defeats and turn their backs on a disastrous month of October.
Head-to-head:
The record between Swindon and Walsall sees an extremely close contest with the Robins just edging it, having come away 35 wins, 29 draws and 34 losses.
The game is sure to promise goals with the last six meetings having provided a total of 19 goals between the two sides, averaging 3.1 goals per game.
|
26 Dec 2014 |
Walsall v Swindon Town |
W |
1-4 |
League One |
|
21 Apr 2015 |
Swindon Town v Walsall |
D |
3-3 |
League One |
|
24 Nov 2015 |
Swindon Town v Walsall |
W |
2-1 |
League One |
|
19 Apr 2016 |
Walsall v Swindon Town |
D |
1-1 |
League One |
|
22 Oct 2016 |
Swindon Town v Walsall |
L |
0-2 |
League One |
|
17 Apr 2017 |
Walsall v Swindon Town |
L |
1-0 |
League One |
The Gaffer:
Walsall manager, Darrell Clarke, took charge of the team following Walsall’s relegation from League One into League Two last May.
Saturday’s match is Clarke’s 20th match in charge of The Saddlers and he will look to improve his start to life at Walsall having only won five of his first 19 in charge, leaving him with just a 26.3%-win rate.
The ex-midfielder started his career in 1995 with Mansfield Town, where he made 159 appearances scoring 24 goals for The Stags. In 2001, he transferred across to Hartlepool where he spent another six years scoring 19 times in the 127 appearances he made.
During his time at Hartlepool, Clarke spent periods on loan at Stockport County, Port Vale and Rochdale; however, he only made 14 appearances in total for all three clubs with 12 of those being made for Rochdale, where he scored one goal for the club.
In 2007, he signed for Salisbury City and eventually became their player-manager in 2010 after becoming one of the senior players in the team and handed the captain’s armband.
His managerial career at Bristol Rovers lasted four years, from 2014 – 2018. He suffered a poor, yet unlucky first season with Rovers as they were relegated out of the EFL, by goal difference, on the final day.
The 2014/15 season saw Clarke rapidly turn things around as he brought Bristol Rovers straight back-up into League Two, winning three manager of the month awards during the course of the season.
His time at Rovers came to end in December 2018 following a string of poor performances resulting in seven defeats in 10 matches.
Since then he has taken over at Walsall and the club are yet to see a positive impact as they lie just one point above the League Two relegation spots.
