One of my favourite fixtures of the season returns as the pedigree Hereford cattle travel to the County Ground for slaughter.

Form… Swindon’s four wins in their previous six games is a fair enough return, however more was needed away from home throughout September to really push Di Canio’s men back up the league.

With Town relying on their home form, 4 wins and 1 defeat, which is the third best in the division, the pressure is on to keep winning at the County Ground while a fix is found to the problem of failing to find the net away.

Meanwhile Hereford have defied all predictions to not sit rooted to the bottom of League Two at this point. With just a solitary win under their belt, against Dagenham & Redbridge, they are at least better than Swindon away from Edgar Street with 3 points – all draws – from 5 played.

Swindon Team Speculation… Will Di Canio rotate his squad again for the umpteenth time? YES!

Following the midweek JPT 2-1 win at Exeter a few first teamers will return. But expect two goal hero, former Hereford loanee and new Paolo Di Canio’s teacher’s pet, Jake Jervis, to retain his starting place to lead the line with Medhi Kerrouche.

Phil Smith remains injured so Mattia Lanzano will keep goal and Leigh Bedwell will keep his place on the bench.

Now we’ve seen Gabilondo for the first time in a month he’ll probably be discarded again…

Hereford Team Speculation… Hereford have completed the loan signing of Shrewsbury Town winger Steve Leslie. Leslie also spent time at the Bulls towards the end of last season and was an unused substitute when Swindon travelled to the New Meadow in August.

Will Evans will be ineligible to play against his parent club.

Previous Meetings… In all competitions the sides have met 24 times with Swindon’s record reading won 12, drawn 4 and lost 8. At the County Ground, Town have 9 wins, 1 draw and 4 defeats.

Hereford haven’t won in the past 4 encounters. Their most recent victory in November 2006 was a 2-1 win at the County Ground.

The most recent meeting, a 3-0 victory for Swindon in March 2009 in League One, was the subject of one of the worst refereeing decisions, albeit one in our favour. Simon Cox was yards offside and slowly running back when the ball was kick forward and Coxy backheeled the ball into the net. To the amazement of everyone a goal was given by Stuart Attwell after consulting with his blinded linesman. Needless to say Hereford weren’t best pleased…

What the Stats Tell Us… At home Swindon hit a high 6.8 shots per game on target compared to allowing 2.8 per game at the other end. Expect to see Swindon forcing the opposition keeper at least 1 in every 2 shots.

Away from home Hereford United only make 9 shots per game, compared to Swindon’s likely return of 13.5 this Saturday. They’ll also give away more corners than win per game, however this has been despite not being dominated by the opposition in terms of possession won. Hereford have only been beaten in the possession stakes twice away, however these were narrow 49/51 victories in favour of Dagenham and Bristol Rovers.

If you’re looking for the time of the first goal Hereford have only scored 1 goal in the first half this season. Swindon have scored 9 first half goals compared to 8 after the break. Most goals for Swindon have been scored during minutes 16-30 and 76-90.

Swindon have conceded the majority of their 12 goals in the second half.

Hereford have conceded 60% of their goals away in the opening 30 minutes.

Neither side has scored an injury time goal at the end of the 90 minutes so far.

Kickoff.co.uk Prediction… 

% Chance of Full Time Result: Swindon win: 60% | Hereford win: 11% | Draw: 29%

% Chance of Scoreline: Swindon 1 Hereford 0 : 24% | Swindon 0 Hereford 0: 18% | Swindon 2 Hereford 0: 16% | Swindon 0 Hereford 1: 8%

My prediction… We’ve been superb at home and with Hereford not having had the best of starts to the season it’s a Swindon 2-0 win.