The start of October feels very early for a must-win game at any end of the table but history tells us that Harrogate Town might be for Swindon Town.

Nine games into the season, Mark Kennedy’s side have picked up just seven points. Since the inception of the fourth tier in 1958 (sacling to award three points for a win) Swindon have had fewer than nine points after ten games five times and on three of those occasions, they have been relegated.

Aside from two exceptions in 1961/62 and 1967/68, in 1993/94, 1999/2000, and 2005/06 a slow start has been a death knell for Swindon as the quicksand swallowed them up early on and never let go. The first nail in the coffin isn’t a saying for a reason but I would rather it didn’t go in all the same.

Of course, each of those seasons was not in League Two with just two relegation places but you are still counting on a pair of teams to fight themselves out of the mire even less successfully. It’s a bold strategy, Cotton, let me know how that pays off for you.

I will always remember Andrew Fitton telling me about the 2010/11 season, he was told by his fellow board members that the team were too good to go down when he said action was needed. They were wrong. Morecambe and Accrington Stanley might not figure things out but they also might. The Shrimps rank highly for final third entries too…

The first weekend of October is not make or break for your season but ideas have to buck up eventually, why not now?

The Sulphurites sit slightly higher up the table right now, with two Yorkshire derby wins lining their pockets, but Scott Lindsey’s Milton Keynes Dons unceremoniously sent them packing on Tuesday night.

Mark Kennedy said of this weekend’s visitors: “Simon [Weaver] has done an amazing job, they have a good team with good individuals which form a good unit.

“They have already shown that they can get good results and the league tells me that when top of the league are playing bottom of the league, anyone can win that game.

“When you look at different leagues, nine out of ten times the team at the top of the league will win but League Two is very different in many ways.

“The bottom line is that if we are not on our A-game on Saturday then we are in trouble but if we are on our A-game then we have an incredible opportunity of getting three points.”

The performance of Joel McGregor on Tuesday night will ease Kennedy’s fears of delivering that A-game on Saturday, as he will face a late decision on the fitness of his starting right wing-back in Jeff King after he went off injured at Tranmere Rovers.

Harry Smith has returned to training after his illness and suspension and could be back involved, with Ollie Clarke and Grant Hall also not being ruled out of being in the squad somewhere.