My last column came just after a real low point in the season, and so to start this one it is worth reflecting that the festive period since was a success for Swindon Town.

We are back on the right side of that all-important dotted line with regards to avoiding the drop out of League Two. The win over Colchester on New Year’s Day was a rare high, the sort of emotional rollercoaster of a game that gets you spending an entire week watching back highlights and celebrations during quieter moments, a hopeful harbinger of similar performances and results to come as Town scrap for their lives.

A couple of trickier results against two of League Two’s better teams in Notts County and Crewe Alexandra have maybe somewhat tempered that brief euphoria, with fans left to wait and find out whether the festive form was just a brief upturn in fortunes or part of a longer-term trend of improvement.

Swindon were held by Crewe (Image: Andy Crook)

Meanwhile, with the January transfer window open, we are in one of the season’s most decisive periods. Every day feels important in arresting our slide, with Town able to make progress by both winning points on the pitch and by improving the squad off the pitch through transfers.

However, we’ve had to be patient so far. That’s the nature of the January window, the front end of which always has an element of the phoney war about it. Deals are slow to get over the line until a looming deadline at the end of the month seems to focus minds among clubs,........

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