Crewe Alexandra travel to the County Ground to face Swindon Town this Saturday. Though this will be Crewe’s second game of the season, having already picked up a point in the first game, Swindon’s opening game of the season was postponed.
Swindon currently sit 15th in League Two on zero points purely because of the postponement of their opening game. Though this league placement won’t be ideal for Swindon, having an extra game under their hat may come in handy later in the season.
Their first game for the 2023/24 League Two season, Swindon were meant to travel to Colchester. This postponement came due to heavy rain and the resulting waterlogged pitch that was unsuitable for a professional match.
This meant that Swindon’s first professional game of the season came in the First Round of the League Cup against League One Peterborough. The game started rough with Joel Randall scoring within the first ten minutes for Peterborough, with Swindon being unable to reply within the half. Rushian Hepburn-Murphy managed to drag Swindon to level terms early in the second half, pushing the tie to penalties. Peterborough scored all four of their penalties, but Jake Young and Fraser Blake-Tracy missed for Swindon, giving Peterborough the 4 - 1 win in the shootout.
Crewe sit 11th in League Two currently on equal points with the likes of Mansfield Town, Wimbledon and Grimsby Town all on one point each. All four teams all sit on equal goal differences, however, Crewe sit atop the pack due to the goals they’ve scored thus far this season.
The Railwaymen met Mansfield in their first game of the season in an action-packed game which left Mansfield a man down. Mansfield raced into an early lead with a brace from KD Davis within 30 minutes. Mickey Demetriou got Crewe back into the game before halftime before Rio Adebisi drew them level in the second half. This comeback was aided by Calum MacDonald being shown a red card early in the second half.
Crewe travelled to Championship side Sunderland for the First Round of the League Cup, where they took the lead in added time of the first half through Luke Offord. Chris Rigg drew Sunderland level in the second half but The Black Cats were unable to get the second goal so the tie went to penalties. Crewe scored all five of their penalties, with Sunderland being able to reply with all but one when Pierre Ekwah missed his penalty giving Crewe the 5 - 3 win and the spot in the next round.
Swindon and Crewe have met each other 45 times in their histories. The two sides are closely matched with Crewe winning on 18 occasions and Swindon winning 21 times. A draw is more of an outlier in this fixture, only happening six times with the last draw coming back in 2015.
In the last five games, Crewe have won three times whereas Swindon have won twice, making this weekend’s game a close one to call, but more likely to end with Crewe with all three points.