I’M looking forward to heading back to Swindon Town tomorrow because I really enjoyed my time in charge there.

We managed to win promotion out of League Two and it was a successful period so I would like to think I’d get a good reception from their supporters.

When I left the club they were still in a good position in League One but, at that time, I had the opportunity to go back to Plymouth Argyle in the Championship and we only just missed the play-offs by a point that season.

There was also a lot of uncertainty surrounding the ownership of Swindon at the time which contributed towards my decision as it seemed like a consortium involving a company from Portugal were going to take over.

I decided that I didn’t want to work for those people but as it turned out they didn’t buy the club in the end and the people who did were actually really nice!

Because of that I’ve been saddened by the club’s recent demise and would love to see them do well this season, but just not this weekend.

They will make it difficult for us and we have to stop conceding so many goals.

I’ve really been studying our defensive work to try and get to the bottom of what’s been going wrong but we need to start picking up clean sheets because they win you titles and promotion.

Some people have suggested that maybe the back four has been more exposed since Jean-Paul Kalala has been injured.

But we will only find that out when he returns and I’m pleased to report he is now back in training after recovering from the groin injury he’s been suffering with.

I will now have to decide when to bring him back but it should certainly be interesting coming up against Paulo Di Canio tomorrow.

He’s come back in to the English game and had a baptism of fire but he’s very passionate about the game and I hope he can do well for them.

I’m only concerned about Southend these days though and, while it was disappointing to draw against Northampton in our last game, we have to stay positive.

We had a good week because we beat Port Vale and Crawley before playing Northampton and now we want another positive result against Swindon.

The loan window also opens again today and I would like to bring in a striker.

I have already made a number of enquiries but the ones I wanted just aren’t available.

Strikers who can do a good job on loan are hard to find and I don’t really want to get kids in because that hasn’t worked for us in the past.

That means we will battle on with what we’ve got and if a suitable loan signing does suddenly appear then great.

But Barry Corr will be back in full training in Monday and that really is great news for us.