Form… Sixth placed Swindon are currently on a run of one defeat – at Torquay on Boxing Day – in fifteen League Two matches. Town’s current form guide reads five wins and that one defeat in the previous six League Two outings, including the current unbeaten run of four victories against Northampton, AFC Wimbledon, Rotherham and Macclesfield.

Away from the County Ground, Town have won three, drawn two and defeated once in their previous six League Two games.

2nd placed Southend United lead Swindon by three points and have come a long way since their 2-0 defeat at the County Ground back in September. Since that result the Shrimpers went on a twelve game unbeaten run, picking up 32 points to send them top of League Two.

Their form has taken a slight dip of late with three victories, one draw and two defeats, including a 2-1 reverse in their last outing against Shrewsbury Town. At Roots Hall, United won their last game against Port Vale 3-0 to make it three wins, two draws and one defeat in six.

Swindon-Town-FC.co.uk Head-to-Head… After two seasons in the Southern League Second Division – a competition in which they played the Town’s reserve side – Southend gained admittance to the First Division in 1908, after back-to-back title wins. Fourteen goals were scored in the two matches played in those first encounters – Swindon winning the first match 4-2, Southend replying with a 6-2 victory in the return.

High scoring matches continued to be a theme over the years – Swindon winning no fewer than five games by a margin of five goals, and Southend themselves recording an 8-2 win over the Town in 1951, as well as another eight goal thriller in the late 1970’s that United won 5-3.

In total Swindon have faced Southend United on 125 occasions, winning 57, drawing 26 and defeated 42 times, scoring 218 and conceding 170.

Our record at Roots Hall reads; played 57, won 14, drawn 13 and lost 30, scoring 68 and conceding 106. Swindon are unbeaten in two visits to Essex.

What The Stats Say… Southend are ranked the most efficient side in League Two according to our latest combined home and away League Two rankings. Swindon are ranked third.

Our rankings show the Shrimpers are ranked fourth based on home efficiency and second based solely on away efficiency.

At Roots Hall, Southend allow an average of 7.8 shots against per game (ranked 7th), however the highest number of their opponent’s shots are on target; at a whopping 62% – this compared to Swindon’s 38% as hosts. The good thing for Southend is that their ‘keeper has stood up to the challenge, saving 85.7% of all shots faced (ranked 2nd best).

Turning to Southend’s attacking areas as hosts, they’ve been consistently efficient judged against the rest of the division, with an average of 14 shots per game (ranked 3rd), testing the ‘keeper 52% of all shots, racking up a far amount of corners with 7.2 per game (ranked 3rd) and winning the highest share of possession as hosts at 54.3%. However, perhaps because of the high number of shots only 11.5% find the net (ranked 16th).

Southend have scored 21 goals at Roots Hall, of which 14 have been scored after half time. Their most dangerous period is in the final 30 minutes when they’ve scored 10.

In defence, the Shrimpers have the fourth best record as hosts, conceding nine goals. Importantly only one has been conceded during the first half and the majority (4) in the final 15 minutes.

As I keep saying…..Swindon Town have still yet to concede in time added on home or away this season…

Kickoff.co.uk Prediction… 

Result: Swindon Win 37% | Southend Win 34% | Draw 29%

Full time result: Southend 1 Swindon 1 14% | Southend 1 Swindon 0 12%| Southend 0 Swindon 1 11% | Southend 0 Swindon 0 10%

My prediction… Will Swindon put behind the weekend FA Cup defeat? Also will Southend put behind their late defeat at Shrewsbury?

This looks like it’ll be heading for a draw…. I certainly hope not and the JPT victory gives me hope we can sneak a win….2-1 to Swindon with both our goals to come in the second half.

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Roots Hall image © Copyright Julieanne Savage and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence