MATCH PREVIEW: Swindon v Grimsby Town

Charlie Austin will play his first game for Swindon Town for 12 years as Grimsby Town visit the County Ground on Saturday. Total Sport’s Joe Acklam previews the League Two clash.

After completing his much awaited return to SN1 last month, Austin will pull on the red of Swindon for the first time since a 0-0 draw with Tranmere on 25th January 2011.

Austin has been training with Swindon for the last two weeks and Gavin Gunning says that even with his huge reputation, he has surprised the interim-manager.

Gunning said: “You hear a lot of people on tv talk a lot of rubbish, saying he is a bad egg or whatever, but he has been fantastic.

“He has taken the training to another level and his information to the young guys is great, he is always giving them little tips and little things to work on.

“He has been fantastic, he is getting stuck in in training and just really good around the place.

“In training it is always different, but you can see he is still a quality player, he has great movement off the shoulder, his game awareness is really good, and he is a winner, that is the main thing.

“We will have to wait and see about that [whether he will start], but he is definitely going to be in the squad, so hopefully a lot of fans will come along.

"It is not the Charlie Show, it is about Swindon Town Football Club and Charlie has integrated into that fantastically well and I am just looking forward to seeing him play."

Gunning said that he had no designs on taking the job on a full-time basis, and so although he would look to make some changes he was just trying to keep consistency before a new head coach arrives.

He said: “Listen, we are going to go out there on Saturday and play on the front foot, we are going to get after Grimsby and we are going to have a lot of chances.

“We are going to get straight in and try and create stuff, we might make less passes in our half, but we are not going to be lumping it, we are going to play quick transitions.

“But listen, you come in as an interim, there is no point trying to recreate the wheel, to try and adapt a new style or try and change much in your formation.

“You can tinker little bits and pieces, but because you don’t know how much time you have got, you have to come in and be positive, be clear with your message and the rest will take care of itself.”

Swindon won the reverse fixture at Blundell Park 2-1 back in September, as Luke Jephcott and Ronan Darcy both scored their first goals for the club either side of a Ryan Taylor strike, although a Saidou Khan red card made for an uncomfortable finish for Town.