Division One: Swindon Town v Blackburn Rovers - Peter White's preview

ROVERS old boy Jimmy Quinn is hoping to bridge the financial gap and put one over his former club to kick-start Swindon's season tonight.

The difference in spending power between Swindon, whose last cash buy was £10,000 signing Charlie Griffin from Chippenham Town, and Rovers, who added £1.75 million man Per Frandsen to their ranks last week, is not lost on Quinn.

But the Robins boss, who interrupted his first spell as a player at Swindon with a two-and-half-season stay at Ewood Park in their less opulent days of the mid-1980s, hopes the gulf may inspire his players to only their second home win in 1999.

"This is the beauty of football," he said.

"We have a game against Blackburn, who are one of the top teams in this division, and we have the chance to put all of those disappointments of recent weeks behind us and earn a valuable and morale-boosting win."

By all accounts, including that of Rovers manager Brian Kidd, Swindon have played better this season than their position a place from the bottom of the Second Division would indicate.

And Quinn is looking to the big games coming up against Rovers tonight and then Bolton on Saturday to bring about a change in fortunes. "I went into the changing room after the whistle on Saturday and told the players nobody had died. It was a game of football," added the boss, whose side lost 2-0 to Port Vale to register their fourth defeat in five games. "Okay we had not won again but we are playing well and if we get our heads up I'm sure we can turn the corner.

"This is the ideal chance to give the lads a boost.

"One or two of the lads often perform better against the top teams and hopefully we can get a couple of home wins to get things moving."

Swindon will field an interesting mixture of youth and experience, with players operating at either end of their careers.

Left-sided midfielder Fraser McHugh is only 18 and if central defender Gareth Davis is ruled out, 17-year-old James Williams will deputise.

Central midfield will be anchored by 20-year-old Sunderland loan player Paul Thirlwell, while left-back Andy Williams is a 21-year-old on loan from Southampton, albeit with a couple of full Welsh caps.

On the other side of the coin, centre-backs Alan Reeves and Gareth Hall have Premiership experience with Wimbledon, Chelsea and Sunderland. And up front, 35-year-old former Liverpool and Glasgow Rangers man Mark Walters is in his 19th year as a professional.

However, it's in the goalscoring department that Swindon are struggling with just five goals in eight games.

Guiliano Grazioli, who may return from injury via the bench tonight, is their leading scorer with two, although George Ndah is in demand with both Portsmouth and QPR lodging bids that fall some way short of Swindon's £2 million valuaton.

Iffy Onuora, who scored 20 times last season, has failed to hit it off this time and Chris Hay isn't firing either.

But Quinn, who scored over 200 League goals in his prolific career before hanging up his boots, isn't ready to panic.

"We are in the lower reaches of the table but if it was the end of the season and we weren't picking points I'd be a lot more worried about it," he said.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.