He may have scored 18 goals in 2012/13, including a hat trick at Stoke City and four against Portsmouth, but Swindon Town have allowed their top scorer James Collins join Hibernian for £200,000. Ron Smith and Alex Cooke ask whether Town should have let the striker leave? James Collins only joined Swindon last summer in what transpired to be an
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Three weeks before the start of the 2013/14 season Kevin MacDonald has thrown in the towel at Swindon Town, leaving us all wondering why Jed McCrory’s appointment suddenly decided enough was enough, writes Ron Smith. It was only the 28th February when former Aston Villa coach Kevin MacDonald was appointed as manager, the first major decision of chairman Jed McCrory’s tenure at
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No sooner had Brazil won the Confederations Cup final than the pre-season started here in Wiltshire. Town travelled the short distance to the Webbs Wood Stadium – formerly Hunts Copse until Webb cut down the trees – to eventually come away with a respectable 3-1 victory. The match witnessed the return of my football alzheimer’s which always rears itself at this
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We’re nearly at the end of June already, the players have returned to training and the season is creeping up on me. It wasn’t until someone asked which pre-season friendlies I would be watching that I realised Town are to travel to Supermarine and Banbury next week, already! I can’t be the only one who gets a little lost at
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The County Ground holds 14,700, yet attendances rarely break into five figures despite two successful seasons. Ron Smith looks at the patterns of fans through the turnstiles… Despite playing at a higher level in League One, Swindon’s average for league matches at the County Ground has increased only marginally from 8,411 in 2011/12 to 8,528 in 2012/13; with the average
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Since Kevin MacDonald arrived at Swindon Town he has continually faced questions at his right to change the ‘winning formula’. Ron Smith asks whether we should expect an incoming manager to put his own footballing principles to one side. The former very successful Aston Villa coach and caretaker manager has only been at the helm for three matches – with
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Buying a football club is unlikely to be a sound financial investment as members of Andrew Fitton’s original consortium have found out. Five years after their takeover Swindon Town have new owners and an empty manager’s office. Can Fitton & Co. say they’ve left the club in a better state than they inherited and what lessons can McCrory & Co.
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After Paolo Di Canio has resigned as manager of Swindon Town we now can now rank the Italian by his results in the Football League, FA Cup and League Cup to establish where he fits into our list of greatest STFC managers… A League Two title and flirting with promotion in League One a year later, then the club’s majority shareholder wants
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‘For Sale’ Swindon Town moved into third place in League One with a fourth consecutive victory at the County Ground. Second half goals from Chris Martin and Andy Williams secured a comfortable victory, if not by the margin of recent results. Writes Ron Smith. Whether it was the minus temperatures or just Shrewsbury’s poor record at Swindon – winning in just one
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Ron Smith and Alex Cooke explain how a £13 million debt and Andrew Black’s search for new investment isn’t news but remains essential for the future of the League One side. If you are looking for the perfect summary of yesterday’s needless panic about Swindon Town’s financial position, it is here, courtesy of former chairman, Jeremy Wray. “The club doesn’t
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The Washbag 