By Albatross
August 27 2004

The first part of our Bank Holiday double header sees Hartlepool United travelling to the County Ground to take on Swindon Town. It's a repeat of the game that saw both teams secure a playoff place last season - but will only one set of fans be celebrating at the final whistle this time round? After being widely expected to be at the top end of the table, Swindon's start to the season was enough to leave them at the wrong end. A defeat on the opening day of the season at Wrexham may have looked close at 2-1, but their goal was a last minute consolation. A 3-2 defeat on their own turf followed, as Luton got the better of them before they finally got back on track with a 2-1 win over MK Dons (spit) and a 2-1 win at Bristol City. A narrow win in midweek over Rushden in the Carling Cup means that they have now won three on the spin.

Sam Parkin has already got on the scoresheet a couple of times, but the issue of who to play alongside him has prved a little thorny. Rory Fallon started the season, but has so far found only his own net; as a result Andy King has brought Darius Henderson in on loan from Gillingham, and he made an immediate impact by scoring twice on his debut at Ashton Gate.

King rested a number of players against Rushden, and will be hoping that the extra rest will have done his squad good. He's also looking at other options, with Spurs' young winger Mark Yeates currently on trial at the County Ground and possibly about to arrive on loan. However he may have to settle for a spot on the bench with King looking unwilling to drop either Sammy Igoe or Brian Howard. Andy Gurney should be fit despite recent back problems, but it looks as if Stefani Migioranzi won't recover from a groin injury in time to face Pools.

Pools of course have injury worries of their own, and that is liable to lead to a bit of shuffling around. With Barron and Clarke already on the sidelines, the Hamstring injury picked up by Jack Ross last week makes him a big doubt - and with Hugh Robertson having a foot problem that may rule him out too Cooper has a few selection headaches. If Shuggy does miss out then he has to choose between Robson and Brackstone - I suspect Bracca would get the nod - but it's the right side that's the real problem. With Barron and Ross on the sidelines, the options would seem to be Darren Craddock, Chris Westwood, or possibly moving to 3-5-2 as on Tuesday and asking Betsy to play as a wing-back. Assuming we go 4-4-2, I'd be not at all surprised to see Westie move across and Tinkler dropping in to the back four alongside Nelson - probably with Strachan partnering Sweeney in midfield. Betsy on the right, Boyd and Williams up front would seem to be the preferred options at the moment - giving Cooper the option to mix things up a bit by swapping Betsy and Williams as he did to great effect at Huddersfield.

This looks like a tricky game to call. One the one hand, Swindon have some undoubtedly quality players in their lineup and should be formidable opponents on their own ground; on the other, their only league wins so far have been against two sides currently without three points themselves. I'm going for a repeat of the result last time we played - 1-1, with Boyd to grab the goal for Pools.