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Swindon v Walsall: Elijah Adebayo has point to prove at Robins

Walsall striker Elijah Adebayo is looking to prove his old club wrong when the Saddlers travel to face Swindon Town.

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The 21-year-old spent the first half of last season on loan at the Robins, scoring five goals in 20 appearances, before joining Stevenage on loan in January.

He then left his parent club Fulham in the summer to join Walsall on a permanent deal.

As has been the story with all of the club’s strikers this season, Adebayo has found form hard to come by.

He notched his first goal for the club in the away win at Crawley in September, and scored his second in the home loss to Mansfield on Saturday.

His performance in that loss was widely praised and he’s looking to build on that when the Saddlers visit the County Ground tomorrow.

“You go through a bit of a rough spell where things don’t quite fall to plan, but it’s about getting back on track,” Adebayo said.

“We’re nearly there, we just need to get that result and we’re back on track.

“I was there (Swindon) last season, it’s a good club.

“I enjoyed my time there but now it’s about going there and proving to them that I was good enough, whatever they think about me.

“It’ll be nice, but the game is the most important thing, first and foremost.

“There’s no friends in football once the whistle has gone.

“I’m going to focus on the game first and talk about it afterwards.”

Swindon have had a successful start to the League Two season, with Richie Wellens’ men sitting fifth in the table.

Last time out they had an impressive 4-0 win away at Crawley.

Striker Eoin Doyle, on loan from Bradford, scored three in that game to take his tally to 13 for the season – more than Walsall have managed as a team in the league so far, scoring 11.

But Adebayo insists Walsall are capable of causing them problems.

“We know it’s going to be a tough game but every team in this league is going to be tough,” he added.

“They’re a team just like us, it’s nothing special, just 11 against 11.

“We know we can hurt them, so it’s about us putting it into action on Saturday.

“In this league anyone can beat anyone.

“We are going to get chances against Swindon, we just have to be more ruthless.”

The squad has been plagued by injuries in recent weeks with James Clarke, Zak Jules and Cameron Pring all picking up knocks against Oldham, meaning they all missed the Mansfield game.

They joined several other players in the treatment room but midfielder Danny Guthrie made a return from the bench against Mansfield and after the loss, Darrell Clarke admitted Caolan Lavery was close to a return.

Ahead of the trip to Swindon, Clarke is hopeful that some more players may be available for selection.

“We’re hoping to have one or two back this weekend that we need.” he said.

“They’ve had a bit of grass time, a bit of training time – it will be nice to get a few back.

“We’re at that stage where you get one or two players out for ourselves and it has a massive impact.”