Almost like a new signing

Bit of a feelgood story in today's Adver, after Keith O'Halloran came through his first half hour in the reserve game against Bristol City. Never mind the score: the return of the former St Johnstone and Middlesbrough man is very good news indeed after a series of setbacks in his recovery from a badly broken leg. As he points out in today's story, six months ago he couldn't run properly: a year ago the cast was being taken off, and I'm sure he had to have his leg rebroken because it hadn't set properly. The guy has had a really bad time of it: I'd be really disappointed in the club if it didn't offer him another season just to see if he can return to his form of old.

Screen test

I've been digging around for a picture of the new scoreboard being fitted at the County Ground, seeing as it first saw use at Wembley. Judging by the pictures of the thing being fitted on the club website, it's not one of the giant screens that hung above either end at the national stadium - if they were suspended above the Stratton Bank "stand" as it's described on the official website, I'd fear it would blow over during a match. No - it's fitting inside the world-famous punch and judy box, so it must have been one of the smaller ones they had dotted round Wembley. It's good news it's arriving: now we've got Sam Parkin there's a good chance the news it bears won't be too depressing. And it's yet another sign of normality at the club, as well as a nifty piece of bartering by Devlin to get it. It's not, I'd suppose, the kind of thing that turns up in the classified ads.

Who's spinning in the revolving door?

As the Adver reports this morning, 12 players are out of contract this summer. I know the names of half of that number: Eric Sabin, Danny Invincibile, Keith O'Halloran, Alan Reeves, Matty Heywood and Adam Willis are all, I'm pretty sure, looking for new deals here or elsewhere. Anyone know about any more? Do leave your suggestions in the comments box below: then we can start indulging in the proper orgy of ill-informed will-he-won't-he speculation that has made this weblog what it is.

Port Vale 1 Swindon Town 1

It was at least a quick return to some kind of form, with one report - in the News of the World - saying Town "outplayed and out-thought" their hosts. I honestly doubt that could have happened - even against struggling Port Vale - had the seven or eight out of form players from last week taken the field on Saturday. But it still took a scrambled goal from Sam Parkin to earn a share of the spoils, when perhaps all three points might have been a fairer result.

In fact, Jon Ritson is even more blunt in tonight's Adver, saying: "How Andy King’s men managed to secure just a point against a side so poor that a half-decent pub side would surely have rolled over, defied belief."

In fact, as you ready the report, you begin to realise just how Town managed it: some good saves, a lot of bad luck and one or two bad misses caused the problems. Those are woes we're only too familiar with, and ones we'll be looking to get over given our next two games, both at home, are against QPR and Cheltenham.

At least, as Andy King points out, the lads bounced back after their very disappointing result last week. We could have been beaten by this mob, and that would have been the worst possible preparation for a testing seven days. As it stands, a point's in the bag and Sam Parkin is back on the scoring trail.

Perms back in fashion

Andy King gets to play around with his permutations today, ahead of the trip up to the Potteries and Port Vale. Most of it is to do with Beswetherick arriving, and the half decent performance of Ifil when he came off the bench last weekend. The BBC suggests this: that Beswetherick slots in at left wing-back, Duke goes to right wing-back, and Dean Marney pushes into midfield (which he'd prefer), at the expense of Robinson. That might do a bit to solve the midfield problem - you've got to say Turbo has been struggling in recent games.

Town's big name signing: Beswetherick

Another new face today: Sheffield Wednesday's Jon Beswetherick arrives on loan, with his very long name and a pretty definate-sounding proviso attached to the deal. If the 25 year-old likes it down here, and King likes what he sees in the player, he'll stay on a more permanent deal.

Beswetherick hasn't featured for the Owls this season. Given their appalling form this term, I'm not sure what this says about the player - maybe just that the cash-strapped club can't afford all those letters for the back of his shirt. King clearly rates him - he likes players with long names, see Miglioranzi and... umm... that's it - and King also says the lad can play a bit, which has to count for a great deal. He's hailed by the manager as having "presence, pace and of course, a left foot."

To my mind, it's a shame he's not a central midfielder, where I think our need is the greatest, and the question is running through my mind - do we really need another left-back?

Now, I know we haven't got any left-footed players at the club, apart from Reeves and Parkin, and neither are typically found bombing down the flank to whip in a cross.

But it's also worth remembering that David Duke has enjoyed his best season in Town colours this term and while, certainly, he's not got a natural left foot, he's done a pretty good job on the left hand side of the park. In fact, I'd have him down as Town's most improved player since the summer.

Now maybe King doesn't plan to drop Duke - perhaps he'll play Andy Gurney in the middle of a back three, put Duke out on his natural right and play Beswetherick on the left.

It'll mean Dean Marney warming the bench, but he's unlikely to be around for longer than a month anyway. And that would also be something likely to suit Duke, who I'd love to see using his pace more down the outside of defenders (rather than always ducking inside). I just hope Duke's reward for his honest toil this season isn't a seat next to Eric.

And I also hope King's got something in mind for the middle of the park - unless he sees the returning Keith O'Halloran as the answer, assuming he can pick up where he left off.

Swindon Town 0 Wycombe Wanderers 3

Town’s impressive unbeaten run came to a bitterly disappointing end this afternoon, as the home side was thoroughly beaten by a strong Wycombe side.

The reds simply never got out the starting blocks on a chilly afternoon at the County Ground, despite a 6,200 crowd roaring the side on in this kinda, sorta, derby match. Wycombe appeared keener, faster and harder working: no surprise that, by the end, they also looked the luckier. Every ball appeared to be magically attracted to a blue shirt.

The opening tussles suggested we might be fine – no signs of danger, a couple of reasonable Danny Invincibile shots saved by ex Town keeper Frank Talia, who got as warm a reception as you'd expect off the Town End.

But the wind was taken out our sails as soon as Wycombe got together their first real attack, in the 25th minute. The ball had been crossed in from the wing and, in the goalmouth scramble, it looked like there was a handball. But the referee just watched as Keith Ryan got a foot to the ball to knock it in.

So far this year Town have shown some ability to fight back, but this strangely out-of-sorts Town side couldn’t find the extra gear to break Wycombe down. Fair play to our visitors: they harried and fought just like Town have in recent months, and made it difficult for our midfield to provide any service to Danny and Sam up front. But with a number of Town players looking a shadow of the men they were in the Wigan match, we had few promising signs to raise our spirits.

Half time arrived and we all hoped King could reorganise and fire the side up, but again Town began in indifferent mood. Wycombe’s narky play, and the ref’s evident desire to keep things flowing, meant our play was often breaking down whenever our own players managed to lift themselves and string a few passes together.

We were looking promising at around the 55-minute mark, getting an attack together down the left flank, when Wycombe broke up the park to grab their second. They quickly got down that same wing and Dannie Bulman, standing in what looked like acres of space in the middle of the area, was able to pick a spot to send a low drive past Gremink.

That, to my mind, was that – Town had done little to persuade us they could get one goal, let alone two, but in fact the visitor’s second strike was cue for some better play. Danny had one effort, in particular, that went just over the bar, right after their goal.

King threw on pace and power in Sabin and Ifil, and the on-loan defender looked pretty promising with a couple of powerful strikes he was unlucky not to score from. One of his long-distance drives, indeed, deceived Talia, but he still managed to get a hand to it to turn it out for a corner. A few fans near me simply could believe what they’d seen.

But the final nail in the coffin came in around 72 minutes when Craig Faulconbridge was allowed to rise pretty much unchallenged to a cross at the near post, to flick in Wycombe’s third. There was no way back for Town, and the fans were streaming for the exits.

After the match Andy King praised his side’s unbeaten run this season, but acknowledged that his “dream” – of challenging for the play-offs – is all but over. He apologised to the extra fans that turned up today for the fact they didn’t see the team that had been playing so well this year.

“What disappoints me is that these lost fans have come back to believe," he told BBC Swindon. "They’ve come here and spent good money, but will go away not knowing what I’ve been talking about. But credit to them, they came,” he said.

Of the performance, he was pretty straightforward in his assessment. “We were second best all over the park,” he concluded. King added that was not acceptable, and added that “eight people in team were firing below par.”

“I never thought I would be standing here saying this, but in the Wycombe team they had players who were up for it more. They wanted revenge. They worked hard on us.”

“Next week is now of major importance. A team can show its class by bouncing back.” It’s just a shame that, for many of those returning fans, this will have been the last Town game they’ll see this season.

Spread the word

Speaking to my neighbour the other evening, I mentioned I was something of a Swindon Town fan. He looked at me as though I was a little mad. "They're really struggling, aren't they?" he asked, after a long pause. "Looking at relegation, or something?"

The conversation kind of summed up the battle we face in the town. We live no more than 15 minutes' walk from the County Ground - you can see the glow of the floodlights from the end of the street, hear the bigger crowds' roars (or so I'm told - I'm, obviously, in the crowd at the time) from the back garden. Yet my neighbour, a keen player and follower of the game, knew next to nothing about his local side. In the long chat we had, it became clear he had more knowledge of the Spanish game than he had of division two.

I did my best to sell the club to him - amazed him by telling him of the winning streak, of a workmanlike and occasionally pretty good side, of the fun it is to support a side based in the town in which you live. I'm convinced he would have come to the match tomorrow, had he not been working a double shift from hell.

That's the message we all need to carry at the moment, to try and get the stayaway fans back. People - even some locals - think we're mad to support Town. I'll never forget the time, walking home from a match, where one bloke with a sense of real disgust in his voice said to two lads: "I don't know how you can wear that strip". Where I come from, that would have earned a black eye: to their credit, they just ignored him. But it gives an indication of the barriers that are there.

Repairing the damage caused by years of mismanagement is going to take a long time (and the jury's out on whether or not the management has really improved that much today). But tomorrow offers a chance, at least: slightly cheaper tickets, a (sort-of) derby match against Wycombe Wanderers that will certainly be keenly contested, and even the weather is going to be nice. Let's hope people don't use the excuse of the Arsenal v Man U cup game, on TV a few hours before the Town game, as an excuse not to come out and watch some football in the flesh.

Andy King is making the same call for support today. He, quite correctly, tells Jon Ritson the lads are "wearing that red shirt with pride and displaying wonderful passion and commitment".

"Their performances deserve support," he adds. "I would ask those who are staying away to please come back and give the lads your backing."

It'll be interesting to see if they get that support. To my mind, everything is lined up correctly. We're on a good run of form, the team is playing some decent stuff, ticket prices have been lowered (a bit), and Mark Devlin has even done his bit to create the feelgood factor by saying the other day that the financial situation has improved fairly radically.

The only other event on tomorrow is, of course, the giant anti-war march in London - I wonder if that will have any impact?

Crozzer's staying

You might have heard all the rumours of late that Andy King's number two, Malcolm Crosby, was going to leave to coach at the Pox. It would have been a bizarre move, given their circumstances, but the rumour-mongers also suggested Crosby's nose had been put out of joint by the various backroom goings-on at the County Ground in the last 18 months. Well, he sets the record straight today, saying he's not off any time soon.

But there are enough hints in there that he might not hang around for ever. An un-named (and, presumably, unemployed) manager thought he'd be getting a job in the first division, and approached Crosby to be his number two. The deal fell through in the end, but Crosby suggests he'd have gone, given the chance. Other whispers also say Crosby has a good tactical brain on his shoulders - it's noticable that King pretty much leaves Crosby to get on with the tactics for most of the matches. I wonder what kind of loss he would be if he decided to leave Town?

Football reading...

Nothing to do with Swindon Town, this link, but a lovely read nonetheless. David McKie (known to visit the County Ground from time to time) dips into the non-league world in his Elsewhere column today in the Guardian: into the world of struggling Thringstone Miners Welfare and the mighty AFC Wallingford, all carefully covered every Sunday in The Non-League Paper.

Sorry, I just can't handle this

We've had some ups and downs since I started doing this weblog in August 2001; bizarre managerial comings and goings, near disaster off the pitch and a fair few real, live disasters on it.

But now this constant flow of good news coming out the club threatens to bring this blog to its knees. As if not content with watching the side going unbeaten since the start of the year, Mark Devlin is only coming out in - yes, you've guessed - today's Adver to say "the club is standing on its own two feet".

What kind of news is this? What's a humble weblog going to write about? I'm getting complaints, dammit - not to mention all those long silences on the STFC mailing list. What happens to the lads and lasses over on MyOnlySwindon if the club suddenly gives them nothing - nothing - to complain about? What will the Arkells Stand talk about all day over dominoes if things start going properly?

All these questions and more are unlikely to be answered today, right here.

But just in case anyone things I'm serious (and I know my sarcasm sometimes doesn't quite hit home) it looks like things are, finally, sorting themselves out behind the scenes. And it's wonderful when we're all back to talking about football, and favoured formations, even discussions about moving from the County Ground, rather than worry about cashflows, transfer embargos, and relegation.

On the County Ground issue, I'm bound to selfishly say I prefer things the way they are now. Ardiles says it all: it's hard to get enthusiastic about a brand new ground, all exposed brickwork and steel, next to a KFC and another bleedin' multiplex. Far better to try and keep what we have now, which also happens to be conveniently close to Swindonlog's bunker (although I don't live in Shrivvy Road, before you ask). Trouble is, the only way to raise the cash might be to move... but, before we get back onto another money story, let's leave it there, shall we?

Tranmere Rovers 0 Swindon Town 1

"The dream is still alive," Andy King told the BBC after Town's unbeaten run was extended to seven games at Prenton Park. And we're all hoping none of us wake up too soon, either.

The TrustSTFC noticeboard has a decent writeup of events. Basically, Town played a fairly classic sucker-punch away game: soak up the pressure, don't do too much that's fancy, and score a goal when the opportunity presents itself.

After a difficult first half, the breakthrough for Town came early in the second period. Sam Parkin was fouled on the edge of the box, and captain Andy Gurney stepped up to do what we've seen so often: thump a screamer into the net.

There then followed something of a fightback from the home side but - get this - the BBC is saying "Swindon reigned supreme at the back with five-star displays from Gurney, Heywood and Alan Reeves". Ray Matthias was also full of praise for Town keeper Bart Gremink, who pulled off one particularly fantasic save from Haworth just before half time.

But the best comment arising from the game comes, surprisingly perhaps, from the Rivals site where a Tranmere fan - trfc4ever - has posted a generous piece praising the side and the job Andy King has done. It's well worth a read.

The upbeat message that post contains is the one we need to get out around the town, especially considering that next Saturday is the potentially tricky home game to Wycombe Wanderers. The "Chairboys", bless 'em, like to consider this something of a local derby, as I recall, so it would be great to persuade a few people to come back to the County Ground and create an atmosphere fit for a good, rip-roaring game.

Ticket prices are being reduced again as well, which gives us added incentives to make sure the club realise that there are lots of fans out there ready to return for a winning side, and reasonable prices on the gate. Spread the word!

No price hike? I should hope so

The Adver proclaims today there will be no price hike next season at the County Ground, but you've seriously got to hope the club aren't expecting a round of applause to accompany the news.

You'll remember the furore last spring when the new prices were announced (this archived story will remind you, if you've taken a knock on the head since). Many fans were facing a £130 hike in their season ticket dues, total cost over £400 each, sparking off fury among fans - not least because the news was communicated so badly. We were presented with a "take it or leave it" attitude from Bob Holt, who appeared to assume people would stump up in order to save the club. Of course, as we know, many just turned their backs on the club at that point. A lot of damage was done.

But I've always thought the worst damage was done by the £21-a-pop matchday prices; prices which have driven away the occasional fans, the friends of season ticket regulars, and many families. The one-off tickets needed to be high to justify the huge hikes in season tickets, of course, but they have forced the crowds right down below five thousand. If you want proof people are put off by the prices, you only need to look at the packed Town End each Saturday: crap view, but at least you get enough change off a £20 note to buy a couple of pints.

If the club has half a clue, it's planning at least a modest reduction in season ticket prices, and huge cuts for matchday tickets to bring them in line with the rest of the division. There should be a swathe of "member benefits" for season ticket fans - how about things like meet the player events, or an open day at the training ground? Neither would cost the club much, but would provide the motivation to sign on the dotted line. And, before they start selling them, they should make sure there's a cheap and easy pay-by-installments option - rather than last year's rushed efforts after the tickets went on sale. Finally, there needs to be a major rethink on how the club sells matchday tickets. Cash on the gate would be welcome, rather than the system that exists at the moment.

The club also needs to promote itself: it needs to get stands in the shopping arcades, people in the town centre, posters on the big roads, all to tell everyone Town is bouncing back. We need a close season filled with optimism, rather than the worry (2001) or fury (2002) that have dogged the starts to previous seasons. It's down to the club - and is within its power - to create that mood among its fans.

An audience with King

One thing you can guarantee from an evening with Andy King is that you get a few surprises - and plenty of honesty. Last night’s Trust STFC fans’ forum was no different.

The main headline to come out of the event concerned the future of Danny Invincibile. The Aussie is out of contract this summer, and King admitted last night: “I don’t think there’s a chance of him staying at the club”.

From what King said it sounds like agents are swarming around Danny. King found Danny talking to one agent or more “round a corner” after the Barnsley match, and everyone seems to be aware that the player will be 24 by the time he moves - meaning any club who takes him on does not have to pay a fee (his 24th birthday is on the 31st of March, since you ask).

King will be offering Danny a contract to stay today, and said he wanted to know by the end of the week if the player intended to stay at the County Ground. The saga, he said, would not be allowed to drag on as he needed to know how things would be shaping up - and who he would have to replace - for next season.

One player who will not be leaving the County Ground on the cheap will be Sam Parkin. Sam was the subject of a £150,000 bid last month (from Coventry, not Preston as widely thought), but Sir Seton has apparently told King that he’d only let Parkin go for £1 million, and even then the manager would have the final say. King hinted he’d take that amount of money: he could find a replacement, strengthen a few other parts of the team and have plenty of change left over to keep the club going for that sum.

King was questioned about what happened at the club towards the end of the horrific losing streak last year, when a number of managers were linked strongly with the County Ground. The manager spoke candidly about his feelings over events at the time.

After the QPR match on September 14, when we lost 2-0, he had a chat with his wife, he said, where he asked her what his weak points were: she told him that while he was passionate, and wore his heart on his sleeve, he wasn’t organised. That led to the approach to Steve Coppell who, said King, was his exact opposite: very organised, forever watching tapes of games, analysing performances and briefing players on their roles.

Coppell came and was duly very organised, but wanted to play 4-4-2, despite King’s warning that the side had no genuine wide players (it was fascinating to hear King describe what he called the “art” of wide play - put a new perspective on it for me). We all know what happened at Cheltenham in the next game, on the 17th - what followed caused King to call this one of the worst days of his life. Afterwards, Coppell went to the board and told them (in King’s words): “If you don’t get four players in here Alex Ferguson wouldn’t keep you up”.

After that morale-sapping defeat, King says he approached a number of people - including Tony Adams and his old mate Peter Reid - to take over the reins (with, presumably, him occupying the assistant’s role).

When that didn’t succeed, he was less than overjoyed at the board’s attempts to find someone. It was, he said, an example of the club “washing its dirty linen in public”. He added: “If Mel Machin was in the room now, I’d walk out”. He also described walking into work one day to find Jan Molby in his office.

On the night of the LDV Vans Trophy match against Southend, King had told the board they “had better get a solicitor” if they attempted to replace him with Machin, and he described that night’s 6-1 mauling of the visitors as “a major result for us.”

Since then, of course, things have gradually improved, leading to the current six-game unbeaten run since New Year, with the only setback - and what a terrible one it was - coming against Oxford. That match, incidentially, wasn't mentioned last night. King was very unlucky to miss out on manager of the month for January, and he gets a phone call every Monday from Coppell wishing him well. Coppell, he says, tells him he doesn’t know how King does it with the squad we have.

But, to be fair to King, he remains convinced - as more and more of us are now becoming - that this squad isn’t that bad. He says he now plays the team to its own strengths, rather than worrying about the opposition (a mistake he made away to Wigan, he says) although he fears the side is too dependent on one striker for goals. It’s fair to assume that at least one forward (maybe more, given Danny’s likely departure) will be on King’s shopping list this summer.

After one question he praised youth team striker Mark Draycott as being “as good a finisher as I’ve come across”. But, he added, “his attitude needs to change completely. He needs to be less a Mark Draycott fan, more of a team fan”. He was also generous in his praise of young Chris Taylor, who he said had a rare “football brain” to his credit, but reminded fans that the step up from youth to reserve football was 30%, and from reserve to senior football another 60% harder.

On the mystery of why Stefan Miglioranzi hasn’t got a longer-term deal, King shed some light. He knew Migs had a bad knee, and it seems his month-to-month deal was a result of that - the player had been told to retire while he was at Portsmouth. King said he now wanted to - or already had (it was a little unclear) offered Migs a deal for the remainder of next season, and all of next, because of his fine performances for the club since the start of the year.

Those are the headlines from last night in the GW. There were lots of fascinating little tidbits - tactical insights, technical stuff about the game - which it’s hard to reproduce here, but was well worth coming along for just in themselves.

All in all, a good evening - and credit is certainly due to Andy King for committing, some time ago, to speak. As he said himself, “if this had been six week’s earlier, you’d have been throwing things at me”. As it was, he got three warm rounds of applause: what a fickle game this is.

Fans' forum tonight

Don't forget that tonight the supporters' trust is having a fans' forum in the GW Bar, my local and a former favourite haunt of Neil Ruddock's, since you ask. Andy King is the guest speaker, and the event kicks off at 8pm. Entry is free if you're in the trust, £2 if you're not (and why not join on the night?).

If you’ve never been, the GW bar is opposite the entrance to Swindon station, and I can highly recommend the organic blue cheese and bacon burgers if you turn up early.

Barnsley 1 Swindon Town 1

Town continued their unbeaten run, but all the reports suggest we were unfortunate not to come away with all three points against the struggling hosts.

When you see Barnsley fans saying they thought it was a fair result, despite admitting they didn't play well, you suspect we might have been unfortunate. And, indeed, watching the goals on TV you'd have to ask how on earth Barnsley's was allowed: Rory Fallon bundled Bart Gremink (and ball) into the back of the net after our goalie had made an apparently clean catch.

Given that, in normal circumstances (or, at least, circumstances presided over by a decent ref) a striker only has to rise with a goalie at a corner to give away a foul, it was a bizarre let-off for the Oakwell side. In his match report Jon Ritson makes the point it was like something out of the 1950s, where goalies had it much, much harder. But he also reports a series of chances for both sides, which maybe suggests a share of the spoils might have been a worthy result. Certainly, a point from an away trip to a side like Barnsley can't be considered too bad.

Andy King says he's happy with a point, although it might fade his dream of Town rocketing up the table to challenge for a play-off place. One concern from the match was that Adam Willis was stretchered off with a twisted ankle. It was unlucky for the defender, who is out of contract at the end of the season; he'll be out for a few weeks.

In other news, amazingly, Andy King failed to win the manager of the month award for January, despite a draw with Cardiff and victory over runaway leaders Wigan. The award went to Dario Gradi after his side won all four league outings - against mighty relegation-chasing Mansfield, rampant division three hopefuls Colchester, heroic drop-fighting Huddersfield and - let's be fair - a slighly more worthy victory over promotion rivals Oldham. Add to that their less-than-sparkling form in cups - out to division three sides Shrewsbury in the LDV and Bournemouth in the FA Cup - and you've got to wonder what it would take for Kingy to win the prize.