AFTER the performance last week against Shrewsbury, Town really do have a mountain to climb.

If we can’t beat a poor team that are also fighting for their league survival, then perhaps we do not deserve to survive ourselves.

For anyone that was still in denial that we are in a relegation battle, you should have woken up after that last home game.

No commitment, no enthusiasm, no passion. And as for the players, they were no better.

Anyway, there has finally been some movement on the player front and we can welcome in three new loan players and welcome back one returning old boy. Well, when I say old, Ben Gladwin is only 24, but that is rather old for our squad.

The three other new arrivals are the Chelsea trio of Charlie Colkett (20), Islam Feruz (21) and Fankaty Dabo (21). I would expect all four players to be in the match day squad for the trip to Bolton and perhaps all will feature at some point in the game if not from the start.

Let’s hope it’s the injection the team needs. There must be a drastic improvement in the results and soon.

One contributor on an earlier thread seemed to think we need to win at least 10 of the remaining 20 games to be safe come the end of April. I say we need another 24 points, so that is eight wins or six wins and four draws or five wins and nine draws.

In reality, we can only afford to lose another four or five games from now until the end of the season. At the moment, there are, I feel, eleven teams in a relegation battle.

Bury are in free fall, Oldham, Coventry and Chesterfield are all struggling to find any consistency. Gillingham, Northampton and Port Vale, along with Oldham and Chesterfield, have all sacked their managers in recent days and will be hoping for the new manager bounce to save their seasons.

I just hope Swindon find the tenacity and guile to get out of this situation. To use a cricketing analogy, the run rate is increasing.

At the start of any season, a team need to have a point per game ratio of two. That will get you 92 points and a good shot at promotion. A point ratio of one will get you 46 points and a good chance of relegation. A team needs a point ratio of approx. 1.15 to be safe. Swindon currently have a ratio of one and with only 20 games left need to increase it by 30 per cent to have any chance of staying in this league.

Let the survival race start Saturday.

The Questions

Q1. Correct full time score

Q2. Attendance

Q3. 1st STFC goal scorer and time

Q4. Number of corners

Q5. STFC percentage of possession

Q6. Time of last STFC sub

Q7. Number of away fans

Q8. Number of yellow cards in the game

ALL ENTRIES IN BY 2pm Saturday, January 14.

Good luck to the Town and good luck to you all.

Rebel