Paolo: Promotion is in our sights (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Paolo: Promotion is in our sights

6:00am Wednesday 4th April 2012 in Sport By Gary Rose

PAOLO Di Canio believes promotion is now firmly in Swindon’s own hands after last night’s 2-0 victory at Barnet moved the Robins five points clear at the top of League Two.

Town went to Underhill looking to get their away form back on track after their last three games on the road ended in 2-0 defeats.

Di Canio certainly mixed things up with his team selection, starting Raffa De Vita and Luke Rooney on the wings with Paul Benson partnering Ronan Murray in attack.

Murray has had a couple of quiet games recently but he repaid his manager’s faith in him with the opener last night, before Oliver Risser sealed victory with a second midway through the first half.

The League Two table certainly makes for pleasant reading, and Di Canio is confident that positive results from their next three games will be enough to cement an automatic promotion place.

“We have a good advantage at the top of the table and I want to stay where we are,” he said.

“In my opinion if we can take seven points from the next three games then perhaps we can celebrate against Plymouth at the County Ground.

“We had to work hard for the win last night but we handled the game well. We had many players out with injury but the players who played did what I asked of them.

“They wanted to avenge a few not so good displays and I was sure they would do well.

“I woke up in the morning very confident that we would win and I was right as we were disciplined and did what we needed to to win.”

Matt Ritchie and Lee Holmes missed the game through injuries sustained in last Saturday’s draw with Bristol Rovers, but Di Canio is confident that the pair will not be sidelined for long.

“Both have had scans and there was nothing serious,” he said.

“Lee Holmes missed the game with injury and he may miss another day of training but could come back for Friday.

“We rested Simon Ferry and we took a few knocks in this game as well.

“We have a few games in a short space of time, so we need to be able to manage that with the players I select.”