ALL football managers and players will say that they would rather have been playing when a game gets postponed and, after the problems multiple postponements caused them last season, that would certainly be true for Burton Albion.

Nevertheless, it is hard to escape the conclusion that Saturday's postponement of the Brewers' trip to face Swindon Town might ultimately prove to be a blessing in disguise.

Swindon, after a difficult start to the season, when they won five and lost five of the first 10 League Two fixtures, are flying, as well they might be, given their pedigree, their budget and, all histrionics apart, the knowledge and experience of their flamboyant Italian manager Paolo Di Canio.

The Brewers, on the other hand, are not, at the moment, well as they played for 45 minutes of last week's game against Oxford United.

A meeting between Swindon and Burton, more than most in the division, really does highlight the level at which the Brewers now find themselves competing.

Swindon may have flirted with bankruptcy a while ago but, with their near-16,000 capacity all-seater stadium, League Cup-winning history and the fact that they were fighting for a place in the Premier League not that long ago, they are, clearly, a much bigger club than Burton.

Asking £25 for tickets to watch them sets them apart from the rest of League Two as well.

But let's give credit where it's due.

Swindon Town made a terrific effort to try to get Saturday's game on, which is in stark contrast to a number of clubs who Burton were postponed against last season, most notably Bradford City, who gave no indication that there might be a problem last season until the game was called off two hours before kick-off.

On that occasion, it was hard to escape the conclusion that a long injury list might have influenced the Bantams' decision not to cover their pitch earlier in a cold week but that, of course, is all water under the bridge now.

Swindon had their pitch covered all week and then invested in a heated dome to bring warm air to it as the temperatures plummeted all over the country.

They were not to know that they were fighting a losing battle and they had to acknowledge the inevitable at 10am on Saturday morning.

The big difference between Swindon this year and Bradford last year is the League table. The Robins wanted this one on.

Fresh from thumping promotion rivals Southend United 4-1 at Roots Hall, they could have gone top of League Two if, as they clearly expected, they took three points off a vulnerable Burton on Saturday.

Who knows what might happen later in the season, when the game is rearranged? Swindon might have hit a blip and Burton might be on a roll, without the injuries which are hampering them now.

On such things, seasons can turn, as the Brewers found to their cost in the last campaign.

They had confident expectations of launching a play-off bid when the postponements started to happen – and kept on happening.

Apart from the weather, games were off because of Burton's FA Cup run and one because of the tragic death of Macclesfield Town's Richard Butcher.

Only one game went down at the Pirelli Stadium due to the weather but, when the big freeze was over, Burton found themselves too far behind both in points and games to do anything other than battle for survival.

Hopefully, we will not see anything like that this time. Last season, between November 23 and January 1, the Brewers played one League match, a staggering statistic.

We are past that point of the season now and beyond the halfway mark in matches, so the problem is not likely to arise.

Saturday's postponement at least means one less game, hopefully, that new loan signing Lee Lucas will miss.

Swansea City youngster Lucas brought a calm stability to Burton's midfield in the first half against Oxford and, sitting in front of the back four, playing simple passes and biting into challenges, allowed Adam Bolder and John McGrath to get forward more than usual, to great effect, especially when Bolder arrived in the box to score from Andres Gurrieri's excellent cut-back from the byeline.

Lucas faded in the second half, feeling a slight hamstring twinge, which may be related to a back injury he had recently thrown off, and was back in Swansea for treatment this week.

He was immediately integral to the 4-1-2-3 formation manager Paul Peschisolido turned out against Oxford and while it was a line-up the cynics would have called 4-5-1, since only one recognised striker, Calvin Zola, was included, it was certainly played with a front three in practice.

If top scorer Billy Kee, given another useful week now to get fit after his groin injury, should now step into the side as part of the three, a role he has played in the past at Torquay, the doubters would probably be quieter.

Either way, the chances are that Burton will be in better shape next weekend than they were this, numbers-wise, even if Peschisolido still has to solve the problem of covering Aaron Webster's medium-term absence with a bad hamstring tear.

And by the time they meet Swindon again? Well, who knows?