The season kicks off today and Swindon Town blogger Calvin Hothi is just as excited as every other football fan around the country. Here he has look back over pre-season and give his thoughts about the upcoming season for the Robins.
For Swindon pre-season has been a good one which is unusual for Robins fans as last year we were facing the basement division of English league football and the season before our ex captain Gordon Greer had completed a move to Brighton who would go on to become champions that year.However, this year saw business completed early with seven new additions and some promising pre-season performances.
Paolo Di Canio had strengthened the squad before they jetted out to Lake Garda for their pre-season training. First of all we were introduced to Andy Williams, a signing that had dragged on for at least a month and fans were just waiting for confirmation. He has looked lively in pre-season and has put in man of the match worthy performances so I can’t wait to see him bang in the goals for us like he did for Yeovil last season. Next was the surprising capture of Gary Roberts. He has looked good in the games I have seen him play and will release some pressure of Ritchie as teams won’t be able to stick two men on both wingers. The final signing of that day was the biggest coup of them all with James Collins arriving at the County Ground. The striker had many Championship clubs sniffing around him but Paolo Di Canio managed to persuade the Republic of Ireland U21 international to sign on the dotted line for the Robins and even though I have only seen glimpses of him he has looked like the 20 goal a season striker we didn’t have last season although I’m sure Williams will be targeting that as well.
The next week Di Canio added three more signings to the squad with the first of them being Tommy Miller. The centre midfielder has looked like he will be a good signing although he continuous efforts to the play the diagonal ball over to Ritchie keep failing as 9 out of 10 times it ends up a throw in for the opposition. Then the signing of Alan Navarro was confirmed. He has said not to expect many goals from him this season but he netted twice against his former employers Brighton two days ago to progress Swindon to the second round of the Capital One Cup and his defensive work has been top notch in pre season. Finally that day saw Jay McEveley return to the County Ground on a permanent basis after impressing on loan last season. The final signing we made was Troy Archibald-Henville (imagine the price of that name on your shirt eh) from Exeter. The young Centre Back has been outstanding in pre season and scored a couple of goals as well. Him and Flint will be battling it out next year. We have been promised two more signings with one being finalised next week as well and hopes are high for the new campaign.
Well… to narrow it down to one word it is promotion. With the signings we’ve made and the squad we have got, play-offs should be a very sensible aim with a view of finishing second would realistic aim as the squad is very capable of this. Di Canio will have them putting every ounce of effort in and it will be a very exciting season ahead with big games against clubs such as Sheffield United and Coventry to look out for (many would say Preston is a big game with all the signings they’ve made but I doubt they will be a big threat).
[ad_pod id=’writer-2′ align=’right’]
