George Bennett sits down with Swindon reporter Joe Acklam
George Bennett sat down with Swindon reporter Joe Acklam - ahead of this weekend's game.
The Saddlers head to the County Ground this weekend - looking to start their away fixtures with a positive result.
The Saddlers head to the County Ground this weekend - looking to start their away fixtures with a positive result.
Transcript
00:00Hi Sadler's Fat Hands and welcome to this week's Opposition Lowdown. I'm joined by the
00:08Swindon Advertisers, Joe Acklom. So, I mean, two games in now, the reverse of Walsall's
00:17situation where we've had two home games, two away games for you. Let's start with Chesterfield,
00:22a draw on the road. What were your reflections on opening day?
00:27Yeah, I think Swindon have to be pleased with the Chesterfield result. Obviously,
00:30they're kind of tipped as favourites for the league at the moment and going there,
00:34Swindon are very much not tipped for much this season. So we were kind of,
00:39you know, thinking a point would be a decent result and then you go and get there. It was
00:43a slow start. I think absolutely everyone has said the first half was kind of not good enough from
00:49the fans to the coaching staff and even some of the higher ups I've spoken to as well. You know,
00:54they were slow out of the blocks, but second half was a really strong performance. I think
00:57everyone probably at this point has seen Will Wright's goal because it's been all over social
01:01media. It's an absolute stunner and, you know, getting that from your right-sided centre-back
01:05is quite fun. But yeah, I think it was a good result, a reasonable performance and you take
01:12it in the overall and certainly getting on the ball with a point on that first Friday night was,
01:17I think, a very good start for us. And you mentioned Will Wright's goal there.
01:22He was one of the additions in the summer and I think it's been 12 new arrivals, 15 out the door.
01:29You know, being local to Swindon, I've kind of seen that on many an occasion over the summer. So
01:36another overhaul, but what are your main views on kind of the players that's been brought in over
01:42the summer and the rebuild? Yeah, it's a bit of a standard summer in Swindon really when you get a
01:47completely different team, a completely different direction for what the club thinks they should be
01:52doing now. And it's kind of switched from, there was a bit of consistency from the first couple
01:56of years of the Clem Morfugne ownership where they wanted kind of younger technical players.
02:00And I think that was categorically proved to not be the right thing with the worst club's
02:06worst ever finish last season. They kind of went, all right, so let's get the big lads in then,
02:10shall we? So it's been a lot more physical, a lot more experience this summer. And, you know,
02:15each individual play you kind of look at and think, yeah, that seems sensible. Not, oh yeah,
02:20I'm really excited by him. But I think it's been pretty good seeing them all across pre-season.
02:26I've been pleased with what I've seen from, I think, pretty much every signing. We've not seen
02:31any of Ryan Delaney yet because he's still injured. But getting someone like Grant Haltwell
02:35as a really experienced defender has been pretty big. Will Wright's been incredibly impressive.
02:40He's basically got everything, really, as a defender. He's great on the ball, but he's also
02:46defensively very sound, wins all the headers and, as I mentioned, obviously scores bangers as well.
02:52So that's pretty good. And there's a bit of excitement with the wing-backs as well.
02:56I've been very happy, excited by Rizel Ongello, who, you know, he's signed a player from Accrington
03:01who'd kind of been in and out of their team a little bit, largely due to injury. You're not
03:06sure what you're getting, but he's been really, really exciting getting up the plank and delivering
03:10crosses. And I don't think there's anyone better in League Two to deliver crosses to
03:15than Harry Smith, possibly Jamil Matt, as Walsall fans might know. But, you know,
03:20they don't come much bigger than Harry Smith. And he's pretty deadly when you get it on his head,
03:24as he proved at Crawley. Yeah, well, I mean, he's someone that Walsall fans will,
03:30unfortunately, know well. He scored twice in the 4-0 defeat against Sutton last season,
03:37which I've described in public many times as probably my least favourite day covering football.
03:44So, you know, Walsall fans will be hoping not for a repeat of that at this time around. And
03:51Mark Kennedy, a new man in the dugout, what have your early impressions been of him?
03:59Yeah, I really like Mark Kennedy. Again, he's kind of an unknown quantity. He was pretty good
04:04at Lincoln, but without being amazing. I think he got, at the time, their second-highest
04:09league finish. But then the guy that's come in after him in Scabala has taken that team
04:15on to a different level. So with him at Lincoln, you don't really know what you're getting.
04:20And I think he'd only been at Macclesfield before then, and that doesn't really count
04:24as a job with where that club was headed at the time. So, yeah, but I've been impressed. He's a
04:30different style. He still likes to play out from the back a little bit with what Swindon tend to
04:35do traditionally as a club. But I think he's a lot more defensively focused, which having conceded
04:4198 goals in all competitions last season was probably the right idea. Swindon are a lot more
04:47aggressive about possession. There's been so much talk of being the hardest working team in the
04:51league. I think the start on that one has been that they have made strides in that area. There's
05:00been a lot of work off the ball. There's been a little bit of confusion among fans where someone
05:04we thought was a defensive midfielder has kind of played in a more advanced role, but he's
05:08in the offer board. But he's playing there because they want him to defend from the front rather than
05:13defend too much deeper. So it's been quite a good watch. You concede four goals against Crawley,
05:19and defensively you probably had a bit of a mare there. But I think it's Jack Rowles who scored
05:25two worldies against Swindon in that game. Defensively, generally, they were actually
05:29very good. Despite six goals, I think you'd probably come away from the game saying defences
05:34were on top for most of it. But the moments came, and that was against Chesterfield. They've probably
05:40only been able to fashion two chances against Swindon when, again, they've had a really strong
05:44goal-scoring season last year as they came up. So I think defensively you would have to say he's
05:49made a very good start, and then it's about what can he do with the rest of the team moving on.
05:55So you mentioned there, you know, improvement in terms of performances and back at the
05:59counter-ground tomorrow. So, you know, an ideal opportunity to try and translate those performances
06:06into results was obviously the point on the opening day. But from Swindon's perspective,
06:10obviously not Walsall's, an opportunity to try and translate that to three points.
06:16Yeah, we've obviously not been at home yet. Mark Kennedy, because of some tough personal
06:22circumstances, hasn't been to the counter-ground for a game yet. So it's his first chance to see
06:27the home crowd, which is kind of tough to judge because with everything that went on last season,
06:33Swindon, which I won't go into tonnes of detail on, but essentially fans lost a lot of faith in
06:39the club. The home attendance isn't expected to be particularly large in comparison to what,
06:46you know, I think the start of last season, Swindon would be getting 8,000, 9,000 fans
06:50for home games. It probably won't be that for tomorrow. And I think some trust does need to
06:56be re-established with what the team are going to do. And hopefully Mark Kennedy's team will be able
07:01to make a positive start at home in this game because, you know, I think both sides are probably
07:07looking at each other thinking this is a game we should go and win. And I think at home, Swindon
07:12will definitely be feeling that to get off to a bit of a positive start and then you can try and
07:17win those fans back. And just to round it off then, what are your predictions for tomorrow?
07:26Yeah, I'm actually predicting on a Swindon podcast, I think I've predicted us to lose
07:33both games so far. So I don't think I can continue to go down that path playing at home
07:40this time around. So I'll stick with what I said last night. I'll say it's 2-0 to Swindon. I think
07:47that's more out of hope than any sort of legitimate feeling that Swindon is significantly better than
07:52Walsall. I think we're probably going to be at a similar level this season maybe.
07:57But, you know, you've got to think home opener to go and get three points in that kind of game.
08:03Yeah, so the same as last year, then I feel probably a score draw is what I went for in
08:08my prediction. I think the biggest challenge, we were speaking off camera just there for Walsall,
08:14is really the away form. Home form was kind of their bread and butter last season. I think
08:18they were the sixth best record and away form was something that was kind of their downfall. So
08:24it'll be an interesting test for them tomorrow, you know, because that will ultimately decide
08:35whether they make the push again or not. So yeah, an interesting game for Walsall on the road and
08:43look forward to seeing you there. Yeah, I look forward to seeing you as well,
08:46George, and hopefully all the Walsall fans go back miserable.
08:49Brilliant. Anyway, thanks for your time. Really appreciate it.
08:54No worries at all.
08:56Awesome.