Team News From The Swindon Camp

Last updated : 20 November 2009 By Thetashkentterror

David Lucas
Town goalkeeper David Lucas spoke to the Swindon Advertiser on Thursday ahead of his side's game at Carlisle tomorrow, Lucas just keen to get the game played despite the recent atrocious weather in Cumbria :


"About three or four years ago the pitch was under six foot of water. If the weather is as bad as they have forecast then we might not be able to play, or at least we may have to get our rubber rings out! From my own point of view though, having missed two games and then had last week's called off, I really want to play. We all want to get this game done and take three points back down the road.

"If it's off then you are falling behind through no fault of your own, just by not playing games. It was something I noticed on Saturday, that we had slipped down to 11th and there was nothing we could do about it. I would rather have points on the board than games to catch up with.

"For some reason Carlisle's local derby is Preston, but being from Preston, we know nothing about that. The Lake District is about 45 minutes from your doorstep in Preston and Cumbria is a beautiful part of the world.

"I remember playing against (Graham) Kavanagh about 10 years ago when he was at Stoke and he's a very good player. Ian Harte came to Leeds last year just after he had finished in Spain (with Levante). He's a good lad with a lot of quality and I'm surprised that Leeds never took him on."

"It's been a while since I played and feels even longer than it has been. I was really unwell with flu, drained of all my energy and all the bits and bobs that go with that, so I was in no fit state to be around the rest of the lads.

"My two sons had been poorly for the previous week so I may have picked it up off them. It's never nice to miss a few games but hopefully I will be in on Saturday and raring to go. I've had two weeks' decent training under my belt since, so I feel strong and ready."




While Robins assistant boss Peter Shirtliff commented to his club's official website :

"I'm assuming the facilities at Bolton are going to be excellent, and it's breaking the traffic up which is always quite difficult on a Friday afternoon. We're going to have a bit of a refresher on the structure for Saturday in training, and coping with that Kavanagh free role.

"No one is sure whether they will actually play with the same system at home as they did away against Bristol Rovers last week, but we just need to prepare as best we can, and if they play a different way then we're going to have to adjust.

"It would be great to get three points from the game, and then we would go into the Huddersfield game in good spirits. It's all fine margins and if we could have converted a few draws into wins we would be right up there, but we've got to move on and see if we can get a series of wins in succession which would really shoot us up the league.

"We've had a couple of clean sheets in a row now and there is a good week coming up with a couple of league games and then the cup tie at Wrexham, so we could make some real progress this week. Weather-wise it doesn't look promising but I understand Carlisle have installed some flood barriers which are working apparently so we'll hope for the best!"





In team news for the Robins tomorrow they will first be missing winger Lloyd Macklin who is only just set to return to light training next week after suffering a leg fracture against Brentford in early September. Secondly midfielder Kurt Hammonds will be out with a knee injury, while finally pacey former United-loanee winger Alan O'Brien has been sidelined since the end of August with a hamstring injury.

The referee for tomorrow's match is the same man as it was for this fixture last season, that being Colin Webster from Shotley Bridge, and he will be assisted down the lines by Gary Beswick from Newton Aycliffe in County Durham and Scott Oldham from Poulton-le-Fylde near Blackpool. Meanwhile the fourth official is Paul Davison from Stockton-on-Tees in Cleveland.