Swindon Town: Falling Closer and Closer to Complete Obscurity
I have been a season ticket holder at Swindon Town football club for almost thirty years, this last season gone was the first without my father as he passed away in the summer of 2023. His ashes are behind the goal in the Townend, and I cannot thank the club anymore for that.
However, the season just gone on and off the pitch has been the worst I have seen ever since I have been going which was in 1994. I got to see the last three home games of that season which was Swindon Town sole season in the top division. Swindon Town were relegated that season in 1993/94 season conceded a hundred goals. Which was just broken thirty years on by Sheffield United.
Three years ago, everything was opening after being locked up due to the pandemic. Swindon Town were relegated from league one to League two. The previous summer Swindon Town won the league by PPG and struggled on and off the pitch that season with then manager Richie Wellens leaving to get poached by Salford City only to be sacked a few months later. John Sheridan then took charge and was very prickly with the local press.
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The football was awful and with just a few weeks left of the season Swindon Town were relegated at an empty Stadium Mk after being defeated 5-0. Sheridan left the previous week after a dismal display on my birthday which was a 4-1 defeat by AFC Wimbledon. There was a mass exodus, the club was on its knees and there was a serious doubt that the club would fall by the waste side like Bury and like what Bolton Wanderers.
In late summer of 2021, Lee Power who had been charge for the club for over seven years sold the club to Australian Businessman Clem Morfuni in what was described as a hostile takeover and the club was days away from Administration. Morfuni managed to get Ben Garner as head coach. Scott Marshall and Scott Lindsey as coaches and Ben Chorley as head of recruitment.
The club leadership cobbled a squad together that had six-eight first team players contracted for that season. Garner replaced the outgoing John McGreal who was appointed as manager on May 25th, 2021, and left a month later under broken promises under ownership problems.
A squad was cobbled together with loans and free signings and Swindon Town did well exceeding expectations in that season. Finished sixth and snatching the second to last playoff spot on the final day of the season after a 3-0 away win at Walsall. That would mean Swindon Town would take on Port Vale in the one of the two League Two playoff semifinals. Northampton would take on Mansfield.
Northampton Town were defeated by Mansfield over two legs. Swindon defeated Port Vale in the first leg 2-1 but lost on penalties after extra time away at Vale Park. Ellis Iandolo missed the penalty which was fired over the crossbar. Port Vale would then defeat Mansfield 3-0 in the play off final at Wembley.
Ben Garner left in the summer and the rumour was that he left to go to Charlton Athletic when the League Two play offs were still going on. Does not feel right, Garner was sacked at Charlton Athletic boss before 2022 was out. Scott Lindsey took on the mantle as Swindon manager/head coach, he left in January 2023 to go to Crawley who just a few weeks ago, he got promoted to league two.
The experienced spine of the team was sold and let go in January, including player of the year the previous season Louis Reed to Mansfield for a nominal fee. Jody Morris took over before January was over but poor form and a fall out with Charlie Austin meant that a 2-1 defeat to Crewe Alexandra on the second final game of the season was his final game in charge. Gav Gunning and Steve Mildenhall to charge for the second time that season and remained unbeaten in the three games in charge.
Swindon Town finished tenth in 22/23 season and a whopping fourteen points of seventh which was Salford City. Leyton Orient, Stevenage and Northampton Town were promoted automatically that season. Carlisle United beat Stockport in the league two playoff final to get promoted to league one. So, this is where the fun starts being a Swindon Town fan and where the confidence in the club was completely lost by the majority of the fan base.
Statistically, the 23/24 season was the worst in Swindon Town history. The club finished 19th in the league two table, with fifty-four points from forty-six games. They were twelve points above safety with Sutton United and Forest Green Rovers being relegated to the National league. The latter facing back-to-back relegations after winning the league two title in 2021/22 season with now Luton Manager Rob Edwards in charge. Stockport County, AFC Wrexham and Mansfield Town were promoted automatically with Crawley Town promoted via the play-offs beating Crewe Alexandra at Wembley 2-0.
This for Swindon was the worst season in their history beating Ken Beamish 17th position in Division four in the 1983/84 season. Swindon Town had fifty-eight points from forty-six games. That was eclipsed by two places in the league table and by four points. There were problems on and off the pitch for Swindon Town.
On the pitch, it started well with an unbeaten start with ten games unbeaten in the league after the first game of the season away at Colchester was called off due to a waterlogged pitch in August. Michael Flynn was in charge and was introduced to the fans in the final game of the previous season and promised to get the club back on the right track. The signs were there after the first ten games of the season with the club in the play-off positions and firing in attack. On loan signings Dan Kemp and Jake Young firing in the goals for Swindon Town.
Then a rough patch at the tricky winter part of the season where games are coming thick and fast. A home 7-4 defeat to non-league Aldershot was a massive eye opener. Swindon Town were 3-0 down after nine minutes and 4-0 down at half time.
They were 7-0 down when I left the stadium, and I missed all four of the Swindon goals which was scored by Dan Kemp and Charlie Austin and all four assisted by Romeo Hutton. There was worrying defeat at AFC Wimbledon, another game I was at, lost 4-0 in the capital. Ali Al-Hamadi was unplayable for AFC Wimbledon and just a few weeks later he got a move to the championship and Ipswich Town.
A 4-3 away win at Accrington Stanley could have been a routine away win, but it was far from it. Swindon were 4-0 up when the clock hit ninety minutes. There was seven minutes of added time, in those seven minutes of added time.
Swindon Town did their best to throw it away by conceding three goals. Then almost doing their best after the third goal to concede an equaliser with the goalkeeper Murphy Mahoney thirty yards from goal having his kick blocked by an on rushing Accrington Stanley attacker and thankfully for Swindon Town, Frazer Blake-Tracy was there on the line to block the effort.
The year ended in a malaise with defeats to AFC Wimbledon, Barrow at home, Tranmere, AFC Wrexham on boxing day in front of a bumper crowd. But on the final game of the year, Swindon Town defeated then Troy Deeney’s Forest Green Rovers side 2-1. Two goals from Dan Kemp and Forest Green Rovers missed a dramatic ninety seventh minute penalty which was saved by Lewis Ward.
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The start of 2024 was dramatic, on the first day of the year Swindon travelled to Crawley and were humbled 3-1. The reverse fixture in the august sunshine, Swindon won 6-0 with Jake Young scoring four goals. This would be both Jake Young and Dan Kemp final game for Swindon Town as both was recalled by the parent clubs in Mk Dons and Bradford City, respectively.
Two weeks later Swindon Town were looking for a new manager/head coach with Michael Flynn relieved of his duties after a 2-1 defeat away at Crewe Alexandra. So that is two Swindon manager relieved of the duties in the space of eight months after a 2-1 defeat to Crewe Alexandra.
Irish coach Gav Gunning was given the job on an interim basis to the end of the season, hindsight being a wonderful thing. It was the cheap option and it never worked; Swindon Town limped to safety. Gunning record in charge at Swindon town in the 23/24 season was twenty points from nineteen games in charge with five wins, five draws and nine defeats.
In the year of 2024 Swindon Town form is worrying, in the form table they are second bottom with twenty-one points from twenty-one games. Notts County are bottom with nineteen points from twenty-one games. Evidentially these are the two teams who were flying high after the opening ten games of the season. With the latter being top of the table and looking for back-to-back promotions.
The off-the-field problems at SN1 have been very worrying, the ownership being very quiet. Hardly heard a peep out of the club owner for the majority of the season until the fan’s forum at the end of January, which was streamed on the club YouTube page. A lot of the fanbase have turned there back on the owner Clem Morfuni after this season has passed and I do not blame them at all.
After all of the fanfare in the summer of 2021 with the club riding high after relegation from League One. To mere radio silence in just three years, the communication from the club to its fans has been shocking and it showed with the Trust STFC survey which was done at the end of the 23/24 season. The results were an eye-opener.
With over 2,000 responses the fans scored very bleak on the owner leadership with a score of 1.5 out of five and a score of 1.54 out of five for the club strategic direction. To add a wonderful caveat that over 10% of the 5,100 club season ticket holders have said they will not renew for the next season.
This was reported in early May and with the demographic that Swindon Town fans have lost complete faith in the owner and the trust also has lost faith with an open letter to the chairman of the club on the 15th may, which can be read here. Clem Morfuni released a statement on the club website a day later and express the concerns that have been acknowledged and is going to work with the supporters group to make things better.
The fan-led survey had damming results and the results do not lie, a lot of work needs to be done on and off the field. This summer is crucial for the club, they have appointed Mark Kennedy who is an ex-Republic of Ireland international and has played in the Premier League with Wolves. The club has signed three players and extended the deals of Sean McGurk and Nnamdi Ofoborh who signed for the club in the latter half of the season.
A massive rebuilding job is needed, and Mark Kennedy needs to be backed to get out of League Two and get this club back on the right foot. Eleven players were released at the end of last season with a lot of experience released in Frazer Blake-Tracy and club captain Charlie Austin. There needs to be a lot of groundwork that needs to be done and for this club not to have a season like last season and if they do relegation to the National League could be on the horizon.
By: Scot Munroe / @scot_munroe
Featured Image: @GabFoligno / NurPhoto