Argentina 0 Swindon Town 1

The 2013 - 2014 season is drawing to a close, with the play offs and final games of the Premier League season only to be played to decide the last promotion places and the champion of the top league in England. Players may already be off on their holidays or have to wait pending their team's success or not in the aforementioned games, but the managers, boards and chairmen of the clubs up and down the country are already deciding on playing budgets and pre-season friendlies. Whilst the poorer clubs in the football league set-up consider late summer games against near neighbours, the wealthier clubs in the football pyramid jet off to foreign destinations for more lucrative matches against the native clubs in countries where the sun shines longer and hotter than in dear old Blighty. 

The World Cup in Brazil is also on its way and this tournament may well bring back memories to players and fans alike of summer tours of years gone by. Here, for a fortnight or so, the dreary, rainy and windswept terracing of home was swapped for the blue skies and palm trees of an exotic corner of the world under which a relaxing cocktail is supped as your heroes build up their stamina playing the local select eleven. For teams like Swindon Town, such tours are not new, with recent pre-seasons spent in Portugal, Italy and Austria, but the club has ventured further afield. 

The Southern League in 1910 - 1911 saw new Division 1 Champions as Swindon Town beat

the likes of West Ham United, Queens Park Rangers  and New Brompton (now Gillingham FC) to win the title with 53 points; Northampton Town were runners-up with 48 points. The club also won the Southern Charity Cup, a knockout competition competed for by members of the Southern League. After a 0 - 0 stalemate, Swindon Town beat Brighton & Hove Albion 1 - 0 in the replay played at Craven Cottage, the home of Fulham FC. The team at that time featured Swindon's only player to be capped at senior level for England, Harold Fleming, although he and other first team regulars were left out of the side for the final. The club was on the up and the following season saw the team lose 8 - 4 to Manchester United in the Charity Shield in a match played at Stamford Bridge, the home of Chelsea FC. Swindon Town also had success in the FA Cup, reaching semi-final. After a match which also saw a replay, the opponents, Barnsley, ran out 1 - 0 winners at Meadow Lane, the home of Notts County FC. 

Preparation for season 1912 - 1913 included an ambitious pre-season tour of Uruguay and Argentina. Legendary manager, Sam Allen, took his team to South America in an age when the only mode of transport for such a journey was by sea. Six weeks after the Titanic disaster, the club embarked on the long voyage to the hotbed of Latin American football. 

Alexander Watson Hutton
The "Father" of Argentinian Football

The tour kicked off on 16th June with a drawn match (2 - 2) versus Combinado Norte, a representative team from sides from Northern Buenos Aires. The thing to note about many of the Argentinian teams of the time was that they were formed by British immigrants to the country and. at this time, all Argentinian teams were amateur with a professional league only being introduced in 1931. Indeed, the striker for the Combinado Norte team and for other teams that Swindon Town played against during the tour, including the representative Argentinian national side, Argentinos, was Arnold Watson Hutton, the son of Alexander Watson Hutton, a Scotsman who emigrated to Argentina in 1882. He was a teacher and, after the first tentative steps in forming a football league in Argentina failed after one season in 1891, on 21st February 1893, Alexander Watson Hutton restarted the Argentine Association Football League which was to be the first officially recognised league outside of the British Isles.

When the teamsheets of the opposing teams are analysed, the British connection with the birth of

Arnold Watson Hutton

football in South America is apparent. Surnames such as Brown, Wilson and Hayes highlight the British roots of those players contesting 90 minutes of football against Swindon Town at that time. Even so, the matches included in the tour was against representative sides from the cream of Uruguayan and Argentinian football and would have proved a stern test for the Southern League side. In all, Swindon Town played eight games during the tour, including against a representative side from Uruguay, representative sides from the various Argentinian leagues, Club Atlético Estudiantes the prestigious Argentinian football club of Buenos Aires, as well as a final game against the de facto Argentinian National side, Argentinos.

Argentinos - 1912

The final match was played in Buenos Aires on 9th July 1912 against Agentinos. The score at half time was 0 - 1 to Swindon Town, Bob Jefferson the scorer. The second half saw no more goals and the team from Wiltshire finished the tour with a win against the best team in Agentina. Unbeaten Swindon Town's record for the tour was:

Played 8, Won 6, Drawn 2, Lost 0

Goals: For 21 Against 6

Scorers: Bown 12, Burkinshaw 3, Jefferson 2, Lamb 2, Batty 1, McCulloch 1

Games Played:

16.06.1912 (Buenos Aires) Combinado Norte 2 Swindon Town 2

22.06.1912 (Buenos Aires) San Isidro 1 Swindon Town 4

23.06.1912 (Buenos Aires) Combinado Sud 0 Swindon Town 2

29.06.1912 (Rosario) Liga Rosarina 1 Swindon Town 3

30.06.1912 (Buenos Aires) Liga Argentina 2  Swindon Town 2

04.07.1912 (Montevideo) Liga Uruguaya 0 Swindon Town 3

09.07.1912 (Buenos Aires) Argentinos 0 Swindon Town 1

Swindon Town Squad 1912 - 1913

The tour was a huge success and it boded well for Swindon Town's future. There was another Southern League Division 1 championship winning season in 1913 - 1914 and, although there was a season played in 1914 - 1915, the First World War interrupted the club's momentum. There was no further success until the promotion winning side of 1962 - 1963 when Swindon Town achieved promotion from League Division 3.