Former BBC Wiltshire match commentator Vic Morgan returns for the 2016/17 season…

Most of the time as a football fan you can find some cause for optimism. Over the past few days though, I’ve not spoken to many Swindon Town supporters who’re feeling too happy with life right now.

Last Saturday’s defeat by Bury was disappointing enough but failed into insignificance compared to the collapse at around nine thirty on Tuesday night.

Let’s deal with the Shakers first. A lack of defensive cover after a Will Henry save allowed the visitors to open the scoring. A bad start which seemed to ease when Jon Obika netted the equaliser. Well that’s what we thought.

Certainly the Swindon players thought so and had started to make their way back to the half way line. Unfortunately the Assistant Referee in front of the Don Rogers stand had other ideas. Apparently the Town striker was offside. Odd though that the flag was raised later than a commuter train in rush hour.

In years to come people will still be shaking their heads over this decision against the Shakers. Don’t ask me I’ve no idea. Another defensive calamity allowed the away team to increase their lead when Hallam Hope got his second and despite a rally and an Obika allowed goal, all hope for Swindon was gone.

Still a local derby to look forward to and that performance after the break at least gave some reason to feel confident about the revisiting Pirates.

Back again after the original game was abandoned because of an August deluge, Bristol Rovers were swept away by Swindon’s bright start. Lloyd Jones got his first for the Town and it came early enough in the game to suggest things would get better.

Well Rovers weren’t swept away, in fact they grew into the game dominating most of the play and keeping the excellent Lawrence Vigouroux busy.

It looked like the home side would hang on and dig out a first win since the Port Vale victory in the season’s early couple of weeks. Defensively though Swindon are lacking. A late penalty conceded and scored and a calamitous error seconds later led to the Rovers second. The fans from along the M4 celebrated and the Town’s followers were stunned.

With the decision to charge everyone apart from season ticket holders again for this rescheduled game, I’m sure the Bristol contingent felt some kind of poetic justice in the result. Swindon supporters were just plain depressed.

What can we take from these matches? Well the totally pessimistic view is that we’re in for a long hard season and a relegation battle looms. The injury list is growing and we’ve already seen a fair amount of cards flourished which inevitably leads to suspensions. Discipline looks to be one of the problems this term as well as our obvious inability to stop giving away soft goals.

The positive view is that it’s early enough in the campaign to try and iron out some of these problems. Can they be solved? Of course they can. They may also keep rearing their ugly heads.

We’re back in action at Oldham on Saturday. A long day awaits. Let’s hope the trip is worthwhile and the corner may see the start of a turn. Right now I’m not too confident. I hope I’m wrong, I’ll be there to see if I am.

Keep it loud keep it proud keep it SWINDON!