Swindon Town are back in action for the first time in April 2024, with an away trip to Sutton United to kick off their final month of the League Two season in 23/24.
Sutton comes into the game on the back of a recent good run in the league, with three victories in a row as they look to record a run of four consecutive EFL wins for only the second time in their history, the first coming in back in 2021.
Swindon however, will take confidence in their return to winning ways last Friday, with a 2-1 home victory against Notts County last time out three days ago.
A lowdown on the hosts
The U's have had a mixed start to their 2023/24 Sky Bet League 2 campaign. With a comprehensive 5-1 victory over Notts County before going on to lose their next five league fixtures. However, in cup competitions so far, Sutton has impressed most, defeating League One sides Cambridge United and Wycombe Wanderers to reach the third round of the competition.
This is no surprise given their “giant killing” exploits of previous seasons, most notably in the 1988–89 season, when they defeated Coventry City 2–1 in the third round, as well as reaching the fifth round of the FA Cup for the first time in their history, beating three Football League teams (including Leeds United) before losing to Arsenal back in 2016-17.
Based in South London, Sutton's history dates to 1898 when they spent their early days in the local leagues, but quickly progressed into the Athenian League in 1921; the Isthmian League in 1964; and the Conference in 1986. A mixed few seasons followed with the team falling back into the Isthmian League in 1991 having won the Athenian League three times (1927–28, 1945–46 and 1957–58) and the Isthmian League five times (1966–67, 1984–85, 1985–86) before going on to achieve this feat again in 1998–99 and 2010–11.
They appeared in the Conference for one more season in 1999–2000 and were founding members of the Conference South (now known as National League South) in 2004. Just over 10 years later, Sutton would go on to conquer both levels of the National League, winning the National League South in 2015–16 and achieving their very first promotion to the Football League after winning the National League title in the 2020–21 season.
Last time out
On an exceptionally hot day in Wiltshire earlier this season, Town came out on top against Sutton with a 5-3 victory against the U's back in September 2023.
Jake Young scored either side of a Jake Cain effort in the first 23 minutes to give Town a three-goal lead before two late first-half strikes from Sutton's Craig Clag and Ben Goodliffe made it a bizarre 3-2 victory going into the break.
Dan Kemp scored midway through the second half, before former Town forward Harry Smith cut down his former side's lead to 4-3 before a late Rushian Hepburn-Murphy effort wrapped things up to give Swindon the victory late on.
Head-to-head
21/22: Sutton United 1-2 Swindon Town
21/22: Swindon Town 2-1 Sutton United
22/23: Swindon Town 3-2 Sutton United
22/23: Sutton United 2-1 Swindon Town
23/24: Swindon Town 5-3 Sutton United
The manager: Steve Morison
Following an 18-year playing career, Morrison turned to coaching and management in 2020 when he became Cardiff City's U23s lead coach, working alongside former Millwall team-match Neil Harris at the time.
Morison was given the first-team role in September 2021, following Mick McCarthy's departure initially temporarily, before being given the role full-time on a contract until the end of the 2021-22 season after impressing with his attacking style of play.
The 40-year-old started the 2022-23 season, before moving on in September 2022 when he spent time out of the game before moving on to Isthmian League Premier Division club Hornchurch in June 2023.
After this time with the club, Morison moved to his current side Sutton in January of this year, following long-term manager Matt Gray's departure as he looks to life his new side out of the relegation zone with just a few games left to play.
One to watch: Harry Smith
Having scored in the reverse fixture, former Town loanee Smith will be looking to get his current side back out of the bottom two by continuing his form as Sutton's top scorer this season.
Nine goals and two assists this campaign is the forward's record coming into this afternoon's fixture, with Swindon hoping to keep the former loaned-in forward quiet to deliver a positive back-to-back performance for the Reds this Easter Monday.
