ALEX Pritchard is predicting the best possible start for Swindon Town in 2014 when Crawley Town visit the County Ground on New Year’s Day.

The winger, who is likely to be the subject of substantial interest from Championship clubs including Huddersfield and Blackburn in the January transfer window, has enjoyed a prolific start to life with Swindon following his summer loan move from Tottenham.

Pritchard scored his fifth Robins goal in 28 appearances to earn Town a 1-1 draw at Bradford on Sunday and, in front of a boisterous home crowd on the first day of 2014 the diminutive forward expects Swindon to take all three points when the Red Devils come calling tomorrow.

“It was a tough game away from home, they played a lot of long balls and Nicky (Ajose) hit the post but coming to our ground I think we can beat anyone,” he told the Advertiser.

“We’re good at our ground, the fans get behind us, we’re good there and we’ll go into that game with a lot of confidence. We’ve got to rest up and go in there to get three points.

“We were going to get hard games away from home and we needed to grind them out and get results. Our last three games have been Coventry, Brentford and Bradford and we’ve got four points - it’s not bad.

“I think we’ll make a good start, we will win.”

The clash with Crawley marks the end of a festive schedule which included a win against Coventry, the draw at Bradford and defeat at Brentford. It’s the first time 20-year-old Pritchard has played over Christmas and he’s enjoyed the experience.

“We were 1-0 down to Coventry and team spirit helped us turn that around,” he said. “At Brentford we should have got the points, maybe three points, but we conceded sloppy goals and we’ve come (to Bradford) and dug in well and got a good point.

“I’m learning, this is the first time I’ve done it and I’m loving every minute of it.”