Swindon's Season

ALTHOUGH Argyle have already claimed a Leasing.com Trophy victory and a Sky Bet League Two draw against Swindon Town this season, the Pilgrims have reason to be wary of their New Year’s Day visitors to Home Park.

The Robins kicked off their campaign with a bang in a 2-0 victory away from home to Scunthorpe United, Jerry Yates getting them off the mark. A 3-2 defeat to Chelsea U23s in the Leasing.com Trophy group followed, but they soon got back to winning ways in the league, earning a hard-fought 3-2 success against Carlisle at The Energy Check County Ground.

The middle of August was an inconsistent time for Richie Wellens’ Swindon, with a 3-0 away defeat to Colchester in the Carabao Cup, a last-ditch draw against Exeter City, thanks to Eoin Doyle’s late equaliser and a controversial 1-0 home loss to Northampton that ended their unbeaten league start.

The end of the month was where things began to pick up for Wellens’ side, as they first earnt a 2-2 tie away to Cheltenham, despite being reduced to ten men, and picked up a convincing 3-1 home to Morecambe, courtesy of a brace from Doyle and goal from Jerry Yates.

This form continued into September with the Town getting two wins on the bounce under their belts, with a 3-1 triumph at Leyton Orient and 3-0 at home to Macclesfield propelling them upwards in the Sky Bet League Two table. The rest of September saw the Robins claim three points out of nine after home defeats to Colchester (3-0) and Newport (2-0), only boosted by a 1-0 away endeavour at Cambridge.

The beginning of October marked a run of three games without a win for the Robins with losses to Bradford and Crewe and the 3-0 defeat in the Leasing.com trophy courtesy of Ryan Lowe’s Argyle, three days before we secured the 1-1 draw at the same venue (The Energy Check County Ground).  

Swindon did soon get out of their rut and back on the winning trail with Doyle’s stoppage-time winner at Stevenage that ended their four-game winless streak. Doyle would be the man again for Town in their next game, making it 13 in as many games with a hat-trick in a crushing 4-0 win at Crawley.

This saw the beginning of their seven match unbeaten streak in Sky Bet League Two up to mid-December, only hindered by defeat to Bristol Rovers in the Leasing.com trophy and their first round exit to Cheltenham in the Emirates FA Cup.

Successive victories over Mansfield, Grimsby and Oldham, plus a draw with Forest Green and a Boxing Day trouncing of Cambridge took the Robins top of the table, although they did go down to a surprise loss at Port Vale on Sunday.

New Year’s Day 2020 will long be remembered as one of the great days in Plymouth Argyle history, as the magnificent new Mayflower Grandstand will be fully open for the first time when Swindon Town visit in Sky Bet League Two. We will also be helping to launch Mayflower 400 – from Plymouth to the world.

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