Swindon Town V Harrogate Town: Sulphurites aiming to counter Robins' 'total football'

The Robins have a reputation for being one of League Two’s most expansive outfits and currently boast the highest pass completion rate (78.4%) and possession of the ball stat (59.6) in the division.

Yet, while the Sulphurites chief says his side need to remain “compact” when they don’t have the ball if they are to stay in the contest, he believes that there is scope to “hurt” their hosts if and when they can turn over possession.

“It’s a test of the resilience again,” Weaver said.

“Swindon are a team with threats and they like to get on the ball and play. They are a real, out-and-out total football team, so we’ve got to compact the space and break fast.

“That doesn’t mean to sit in overly deep, it’s about striking that balance and not just running around for the sake of running around then getting picked off, because Swindon are quite clever.

“Also, we think that physically, as in strength-wise, we are looking strong. So, if we can make ourselves hard to beat then there are areas in their team that we think we can hurt.

“Because they are so expansive, if we can break them down in areas where we can get numbers around the ball, we can hurt them - because they are so expansive.”

Harrogate head down to Wiltshire with the aim of completing their first league double of the season having recorded a fine 3-0 home victory over Swindon on the opening day.

They make that trip south with the same group of players available to them that ground out a 0-0 draw at Grimsby in midweek.

Goalkeeper Pete Jameson (thumb), defensive duo Kayne Ramsay (face) and Kyle Ferguson (knee), and midfielder Stephen Dooley (foot and groin) are the four members of Weaver’s first-team squad who will miss out.

Last term’s visit to the County Ground ended in a 1-1 draw, Jack Payne’s late penalty cancelling out Jack Diamond’s 23rd-minute opener for the visitors.