MATCH PREVIEW: Salford City vs Swindon

Swindon Town are still in search of the first points of the Jody Morris era as they travel to face play-off chasers Salford City. Total Sport’s Joe Acklam previews the League Two clash.

Tuesday’s trip to Sutton United saw a late turnaround that consigned Swindon to their third straight defeat, making Morris the first Town managed to start  their tenure with three defeats since Iffy Onuora in 2005.

Onuora earned a point at Brentford in his fourth game in charge, meaning that Morris would join Andy King in his second spell in charge as the only manager this century to have lost their first four matches if he can’t get anything from the Peninsular Stadium.

Morris said: “We can’t hide from the fact that we have had three results that we didn’t want, but if we are talking about building resilience then a lot of those characters come from bad moments.

“We need to try and turn these bad moments into foundations and build a platform for us to perform better.

“Nobody likes losing games, nobody less than me, but it is up to us as a group and a club to try and change that.

“Shying away from the fact we are going through a difficult spell is the wrong thing to do, I think we need to hit it head on.

“We have to take that and try and attack a really good Salford team, who are in a really good position in the league and have an outstanding home record.

“If we are to start turning the results around then it would be a really good place to start.”

Morris wants to see his team become more consistent within individual games if they are to start picking up points.

He said: “I would like to see us perform well for longer spells, consistency in games has been far too up and down.

“We have been touching on a few things that we think would give us the biggest opportunity to win or to perform better and we are not seeing enough of them all come together at the same time.

“We obviously need individuals to produce as well and win their individual battles, but first and foremost we need to influence the game better both on and off the ball.

“We also need to recognise moments in game that if we are finding ourselves on top that we try and capitalise on that, whilst also maintaining our focus and making sure we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot.

“If we can do that for longer spells then we will give ourselves a much better chance of getting something.”

It is not getting any easier for Morris on the injury front as only Tyrese Shade has a chance of returning to the fold, with Reece Devine having just re-entered full training, and Jonny Williams, Joe Tomlinson, and Marcel Lavinier all still a few weeks away.

Salford come into this match 6th in the table, but they have only won two of their last six and Town have won every game they have ever played at the Peninsular Stadium.

The score in the reverse fixture was a 0-0 draw at the County Ground back in August, as ten-man Swindon held on for a point at the County Ground following Harry McKirdy’s dismissal before half-time.