Preview: Swindon Town vs Exeter City

With City’s season beginning to gather momentum after a comfortable win against the side that was top of the table prior to the match, attention turns back to the EFL Trophy and a visit to the side that were crowned champions of League Two last time. As expected, Matt Taylor has already confirmed that Tuesday’s fixture will be an opportunity for those currently on the fringes to get match time as well as stating their case for more regular first team action. Therefore expect the likes of Maxted, Caprice, Seymour and Ajose to get the nod.

Swindon, back in the third tier after winning the truncated League Two last season, have made a decent start with two wins and two defeats, although both cup fixtures so far have ended in defeat, to Charlton and West Brom U21s respectively. Richie Wellens was a very busy man in the summer, perhaps the most surprising move being letting top scorer Eoin Doyle go to Bolton on a free transfer – although the words around the club’s financial status over the summer may have had a bearing. In terms of incoming players, it appears that Wellens scoured the higher levels for loan players called Smith, no fewer than three loanees with this surname coming in to the club. Two of these – Tyler and Jonny, are the current joint top scorers across all competitions with two each. One player who might hope to feature on Tuesday is Joel Grant, the former City forward joined the Robins over the summer but has so far made just one sub appearance.

The sides have met in this competition a number of times over the years, the last time being in the 2016/17 group stage when Swindon won 4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw – Swindon led at half time through Luke Norris before David Wheeler equalised in the second half.

Match officials for the game are:-

Referee: Craig Hicks
Assistant Referees: Lisa Rashid and Damith Bandara
Fourth Official: Kevin Morris

Craig Hicks has refereed five Exeter games, see https://www.grecians.co.uk/wordpress/?s=hicks