Carlisle United aim to clip the Robins’ wings

Swindon have to look back to the beginning of January for their last victory and their current woeful nine-game run without a win has taken them into a precarious position amongst the League One relegation places.

All of the talk at the County Ground is of survival but action rather than words is needed if Danny Wilson’s confident prediction that the Robins will stay up is going to bear fruit. Former-Carlisle striker Vincent Pericard remains a doubt for the home side and that isn’t good news for a team struggling to find goals.

The Cumbrians welcome defender Gary Borrowdale back into the fray following his one-match suspension but influential captain Paul Thirlwell is still absent as his calf injury continues to heal slowly.

Carlisle boss Greg Abbott, who will return to the technical area following a one-match suspension served out at Boundary Park, said: “There’s a buzz around the place after the win on Tuesday night. The performance was exactly what we needed and we know that we will have to play that way again.

“Swindon will scrap for everything because they will not be happy with their situation and they certainly won’t roll over and let us dictate anything. We expect them to come at us and we are going to have to work every bit as hard as we have been doing lately. If we do that, we’ll be coming back up the M6 with a result.

“We’ve talked about the fact that we haven’t got the results against the bottom sides that we should have, and this is one that the squad is determined to do right.”

Match odds:

Swindon, 5/4 with Betfred

Draw, 13/5 with Victor Chandler

Carlisle United, 12/5 Skybet