It’s Friday, so it must be time for the latest blog by BBC Devon’s Vic Morgan.

It was a soggy start to the New Year then… I particularly enjoyed driving most of the way to Swindon from Devon, only to have to turn round again when I heard that the Town’s game with Crawley was off. Mind you I wasn’t surprised. The M5 resembled a canal and the sides of the roads a new ocean. Incredible and with more to come, thank goodness there’s no game this weekend.

Before that, I had an early start for the trip to Bradford. The ongoing Nile Ranger saga meant he wasn’t in the line-up at Valley Parade  and not surprisingly it looks like his time at SN1 is up. A shame really. A player with so much talent and somehow not able to channel it into his football career. Enough said on that matter.

More should be said on the excellent defensive display by Swindon. Too often this season defensive lapses have proved our undoing. When the home side went in front early on with an almost free bullet like header, things didn’t look promising. Grit, determination and some good football got us back into the game leading to a wonder goal from Alex Pritchard. It was reminiscent of Ricky Villa’s effort in the Cup Final all those years ago. A mazy dribble and a great finish in front of the Town fans. Wonderful moment and made the long trip worthwhile.

It was also farewell to Nicky Ajose. The loan from Peterborough has come to an end. A player who always gave his all and looked as though he cared. He scored the goals which have got us to the latter stages of the JPT. Ironic that we face his parent club in the area final.

So what of 2014? A top eight finish would be tremendous. Play offs even better. We don’t know what sort of squad we’ll have at the end of January so it’s difficult to judge how strong we’ll be. On the evidence of Valley Parade, Branco is one player who’ll come into the frame. Coming on as a second half substitute, he was superb. So a real backbone emerged and that’s what we’ll need over the second half of this campaign.

A weekend off then and a chance to make sure my house doesn’t blow away. Enjoy.

Keep it loud keep it proud keep it SWINDON.

Vic

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