Macca desperate to beat the weather (From Swindon Advertiser)

SWINDON TOWN: Macca desperate to beat the weather

6:00am Friday 10th February 2012 in Local By Gary Rose

ALAN McCormack will be keeping a close eye on the weather forecast at Barnet today, hopeful that Swindon’s game at Underhill will not fall victim to the freezing conditions.

Town have not been in League Two action since their 4-1 win at Southend on January 31, with last Saturday’s game against Burton called off due to a frozen pitch at the County Ground.

Consequently, Swindon have dropped to fourth with automatic promotion rivals Southend, Crawley and Cheltenham all having played since then.

And while the Robins have a game in hand over the two sides immediately above them, McCormack would much rather have the points on the board.

“After beating Southend and going second we wanted last Saturday to be on and we definitely want this Saturday on,” he said.

“We are still crossing our fingers and we are still preparing to play this Saturday.

“It is not nice to have and considering how tight the league is we don’t want to slip away.

“People might say we have games in hand but we have to win those games in hand. It is better to have the points on the board because then there isn’t the pressure to win those games in hand.

Town are accumulating a backlog of fixtures due to postponements and their recent cup exploits.

On Tuesday, Paolo Di Canio’s side beat Barnet 1-0 to progress to the final of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, where they will take on Chesterfield at Wembley.

Playing at the country’s national stadium is something that almost all footballers aspire to, but McCormack admitted the fact he will be playing there in just over the month has yet to sink in, with the players’ minds having been on the Barnet game since Wednesday.

“I don’t think it has sunk in too much yet,” he added.

“I think the closer you get to the game then the it starts to sink but with games coming as quickly as they are we forgot about Tuesday and immediately started preparing for Saturday’s game.

“It is getting busier and busier.

A lot of games are being added into March and heading into April and usually when you get to that stage of the season you are usually just playing once a week then.”