Swindon will ‘attack the game’, insists Garner
SWINDON Town manager Ben Garner believes his side can “play a lot better” when they travel to Port Vale for tonight’s second leg of the League Two play-off semi-final.
The Wiltshire Robins take a 2-1 lead to Vale Park and the winner will face the winner of last night’s Northampton Town v Mansfield play-off in the final at Wembley on May 28.
Speaking to BBC Radio Wiltshire yesterday, Garner said: “We can play a lot better than we did on Sunday, that’s for sure. I thought our commitment, our defending, our intensity, we looked a threat but we can play a lot lot better with the ball and I would expect that to be the case on Thursday.”
Swindon, who a year ago were caught up in a legal battle over ownership and without a manager, are aiming for an immediate return to League One, after last season’s relegation.
Top scorer Harry McKirdy scored twice at the County Ground in the first-leg victory on Sunday, before James Wilson grabbed a crucial late goal for Vale.
Garner added: “I think there’s a really good mentality within the group. There’s a good confidence not over-confidence - but a good confidence ... We want to start on the front foot, we want to be the aggressor straight away, we want to be the team attacking.
“We’re certainly not going there to sit and soak up pressure. That’s not us, that’s not the way we play. We’re going there to win and attack the game.”
Port Vale, managed by former Bristol Rovers boss Darrell Clarke, are in the play-offs for the first time since 1993 after finishing fifth in the league.
They had looked odds-on for an automatic promotion spot but three defeats in their final four matches saw them drop out of the top three and into the play-offs.
Clarke has called on his players to step up for the occasion. He told BBC Radio Stoke: “Big players turn up in big games and there’s not enough of our lads done that. But they’ve got another opportunity.”
He added: “We have to keep growing as a football club and players have to show that they can be good without the ball and with the ball in big games.”