January at Swindon Town

You'll have to speak louder, the atmosphere at the County Ground is deafening!

The January transfer window usually brings a flurry of players in and out of clubs. However, January at the County Ground has been strangely quiet off the pitch, perhaps to compliment the storm The Robins are currently kicking up on the pitch!

Now that the transfer window has slammed shut, lets sum up the hello's and goodbye's so far. Though not all restricted to the transfer window, in a busy period a couple could have been missed:

Players Out
Yinka Casal (Terminated)
Anthony McNamee (Norwich)
Alex Revell (Loan End)
Ben Hutchinson (Loan End)
Hasney Aljofree (Terminated)
Lee Peacock (Grimsby)

Players In
Alan Sheehan (Leeds Loan Extension until end of season plus playoffs)
Danny Ward (Bolton Loan Extension until end of season plus playoffs)
Vincent Pericard (Free Agent)
Simon Ferry (Celtic Loan Extension until end of season plus playoffs)

Wilson admitted he failed in a bit to add 3 new names to his squad as deals broke down at the 11th hour on deadline day. Strong rumours are linking two of the names as Scotland Under 21 Captain and Celtic Right Winger Paul Caddis and Portsmouth's 20 year old midfielder Matt Ritchie. Wilson has promised he will be following up his enquiries when the emergency loan window opens next week, so hopefully the latter list above will grow.

In comparison, on the pitch Town's football has been raising the decibel level at SN1 as Town have moved themselves into a very strong position to compete for a playoff spot come the end of the season. This has been aided by another unbeaten streak, this time of 7 games, with just our gutsy fall at Craven Cottage in the FA Cup being the blemish since our poor performance against Bristol Rovers back in December last year.

A certain two men who play off of each other better than Ant and Dec, or even Phil and Fern, have been setting alight League 1. Billy Paynter has bagged 16 goals to his name this season in all competitions, whilst non-league prodigy Charlie Austin has put away 10 in his last 13 outings in a red shirt! A feat that has earned 20 year old Austin a new 2 and a half year deal, putting the mockers on all those rumours floating about telling me the lad wouldn't be helping us push for promotion come the end of the season.

And the form we've found ourselves in hasn't been due to poor opposition. Town have racked the points up against worthy opponents, with the most notable points this season coming from a 1-0 victory over Southampton eons ago back at the start of the season, a 2-2 draw with Charlton at The Valley, and of course the 3-0 thrashing of Leeds United just 8 days ago. That one will certainly live long in the memory of every Swindon Town fan in the first sell out crowd since 2007 at the County Ground.

But its not going to be a cruise to the playoffs at the end of the season, as now we find ourselves coming up against teams in and around our position, and when you are doing so well, teams will come up against you with added vigour as a victory will mean so much more.

Saturday we welcome Charlton Athletic to the County Ground for the first time in League competition since the season of the millennium. One Michael Carrick scored for Town as they fell victim to a 2-1 Charlton victory. In 2007 Charlton made the trip West down the M4 as the teams were drawn in the League Cup. Charlton ran out 2-0 winners as the gulf in class became evident after a battling first half from Town. The likes of Nicky Weaver, Lloyd Sam, Marcus Bent, Darren Ambrose and Andy Reid outshone Town's battlers of Peter Brezovan, Miguel Comminges, Christian Roberts and Lee Peacock.

Hoping for another bumper crowd at the County Ground, as the other half of the ground who turned up for the Leeds game were treated to a Swindon carnival of football in our last game. Keep the performances up and the fans will stay, COME ON YOU REDS!