SWINDON Town head coach Luke Williams knows all too well the unpredictable state in which Peterborough United will arrive at the County Ground this afternoon.

United were thumped 5-1 at Bury last weekend as the Shakers won for the first time in 21 matches by beating Grant McCann’s men in emphatic fashion.

Town are no stranger to heavy defeats themselves, having been on the wrong end of a one-sided scoreline in League One far too often this season.

Williams thinks the Posh will either go into their shells or come out all guns blazing when they look to make amends against Swindon today.

“It can go one of two ways. We know ourselves it can be very difficult to bounce back from a really bad result and bad performance,” said Williams.

“Equally, players can come out really determined to make an apology and put things right, so we really have to be on guard.

“If we can get on top early, there will be some nervy moments for them, but certainly, they are not going to come and lay down and let us have all of the game.”

Town’s last home fixture a fortnight ago saw struggling Shrewsbury Town arrive at the County Ground and shut up shop, putting 10 men behind the ball for most of the game.

Swindon struggled to break that down on the day and although Williams expects Peterborough to be much more attack-minded, he believes Town’s expansive game plan often forces opponents to employ a defensive system.

“One thing to understand is that many teams come here to press us and end up sitting very deep,” said Williams.

“You won’t often know that from the stands but you’d be surprised the amount of times we speak to the opposition afterwards and they say: ‘we came here to press you really high up the pitch’.

“It’s very difficult to press a team that haven’t got any players deep in their own half.

“It’s very difficult to press a team that play clean through you. If that happens two or three times and you lose half your team up the pitch, you don’t press any more, you drop.

“Players do it without instruction very often because they can feel it – they are on the pitch.

“If, after two or three actions, Swindon carve you open, then you don’t want to go too high up the pitch.

“It will depend on how we perform, whether they are able to press us high up the pitch and have a go at us, or whether they sit and try to be difficult to break down.”

“We will look at the real obvious strengths of the opposition and then try to concentrate on where we are going to hurt them, and make sure that we do our bit as well as we possibly can.”

Matchday Live with Harry Abbott & Matthew Edwards from the County Ground from 2pm today at swindonadvertiser.co.uk/sport