Dan the Fan: Can Town upset the odds.....again?

“I can’t keep being sent off every time because I move too much. It’s not fair. Will I appeal if I am charged? Absolutely.”

“If they want to send me off every time, then no problem. We will win this league anyway because my team is good enough."

As a Swindon Town fan it’s currently impossible not to love this man, his passion and love for his job is brilliant to see.

After our slightly nervy 1-0 win against Macclesfield last weekend we again got some more golden quotes from the boss Paolo Di Canio.

If you put on any football show and listen to a player or manager you normally just get bombarded with footballing clichés, it’s refreshing to have someone in the world of football that speaks his mind with lots of passion and intelligence.

In the week leading up to the Macclesfield game there seemed to be a new transfer story emerging everyday from the County Ground, but after that busy week it’s been the opposite in the last four days.

After the James Constable deal collapsed last week Paolo said he was still after another striker.

And now that Mehdi Kerrouche looks to be leaving in the next few days to another League Two side its even more important we bring in more quality to help out Benson, Connell, Murray and Magera.

Apart from taking away three crucial points last Saturday the performances of the two new faces at the County Ground was the main highlight of the day.

Both Paul Benson and Luke Rooney played a massive part not just in the games winning goal but throughout their time on the pitch.

Having a natural winger playing on the left hand side instead of a striker made a huge difference to how many chances were created in the second half.

It was good to see Paul Benson get another goal in his young Swindon career, his experience of League Two will be essential as it gets towards the business end of the season.

Also this week we found out how many tickets were being made available for the massive game at the Kassam Stadium on March 3rd when Town take on the clubs biggest rival Oxford Utd.

Unfortunately only 1,252 tickets have been allocated to Swindon after Oxford announced they wouldn’t be putting up a temporary stand for the big game.

The U’s have explained why the decision was made not to allow more Town fans to attend the game on the clubs official website.

It’s a massive shame for the contest as a whole that Oxford have only given Swindon a messily amount of tickets for the big game but not really unexpected.

We just need to make sure that if we play them again at the County Ground we allocate them with the official number of tickets they are entitled to and not give them the 2,700 we did last August.

But there is some good news that the club are “exploring the possibility” of erecting a big screen at the County Ground so that thousands of other fans get to see the game.

Its another brilliant idea from our current board and I really hope this happens because it’ll be a great day inside the County Ground when we get some revenge for the reverse fixture back last summer.

After Town’s heroics against Wigan in the F.A Cup our reward is a trip up to the King Power Stadium to take on Championship side Leicester City tomorrow afternoon.

Whenever you hear the fixture Swindon Town v Leicester City it’s hard for you mind not to go straight back to May 31st 1993.

It’s a game that will live with Town supporters for a lifetime, and will be forever associated with the club alongside the 1969 League Cup win.

But 19 years later in 2012 it’s a completely different fixture with the clubs at different ends of the Football League pyramid.

After an average start to a season that promised so much with some big spending in the transfer market the foxes sacked manager Sven-Goran Eriksson and replaced him with former boss Nigel Pearson.

Since he started his second spell back in charge of Leicester the new boss has improved the clubs fortunes with the club only losing one of their last seven games and of course they will go into the game as favourites to the untrained eye.

As we’ve already experienced this season Cup football isn’t always as simple as it looks on the fixture list and Town should be confident going up against a good Leicester City side.

With Town already selling out there initial allocation of tickets it shows the amazing support that will follow the team to Leicestershire.

And with Town in an amazing run of results and currently playing some brilliant football, another memorable win against the Foxes is something no one can rule out.

Don't forget you can follow me on Twitter @danjohnson6

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