Mark Cooper's Swindon Town

Mark Cooper
Swindon Town's Manager

After the semi-final play-off defeat to Brentford, despite Aden Flint's superb equaliser (Aden Flint's Superb Equaliser), and with Kevin MacDonald deciding to quit his job as Swindon Town Manager for personal reasons, the whole sorry mess that unravelled at SN1 after Paolo Di Canio's tenure seemed to be coming to its inevitable conclusion. With the hysteria that surrounded the Italian and the refusal on most Swindon Town fans' part to see anything wrong with the management of the club so long as the team were winning on the pitch, and I include myself as one of those swept along by the Di Canio Circus (hindsight - a wonderful commodity with which to analyse past events), there was a sense of incredulity that Swindon Town could find itself in the position of having new owners and a caretaker manager at the helm at the start of the new season. In these rural parts of the country, the West Country instinct (we're Moonrakers after all) to be wary of the strange-sounding outsiders from down the M4 (Londoners) came to the fore when Jed McCrory, armed with the accent and vernacular of a barrow boy, headed up the consortium that saved the foremost team in Wiltshire from sliding into the administration mire that could have had fatal repercussions for professional football in Swindon.

Jed McCrory
Swindon Town Chairman

For his part Jed McCrory has proved his mettle and the improvements around the club, from the bricks and mortar projects in and around the stadium, to the improvements in purchasing online tickets, the matchday hospitality, etc. has shown that the Chairman is holding up his end in the bargain of his ambition for Swindon Town Football Club to be a truly sustainable business and community leader.


When, at the start of the current season, the club was left managerless, the quiet spoken and unassuming Mark Cooper took over the reins. The team that had almost achieved another Wembley visit had been dismantled and a team of youngsters, some homegrown, some borrowed from other clubs, and some signed at short notice were assembled to take on the rest of League 1. For a number of Swindon Town fans, their distrust of Mr. McCrory and the rest of the new board still to the fore, believed that relegation was on the cards and that the only way to avert such a disastrous end to the season was to appoint a "name", someone who had had extensive experience in football management and who could steer the Swindon ship on a course away from the rocks onto which it seemed to be heading. However, after a handful of games under his belt, Mark Cooper was awarded the role of Swindon Town Manager on a permanent basis. I would like to put on record that I supported his appointment. He had worked with Kevin MacDonald for the few months leading up to the end of last season and he knew the players that were left to him for the start of the new season. From these foundations, in my mind, the club was better off with Cooper in charge, as he could gently build on the work that had already been put into moulding a team for the assault on League 1 promotion. One question on the lips of all Swindon Town fans was what sort of football would be played by such young players, many of whom are short in stature?

Bert Head

"Bert's Babes"

Having experienced first hand the football played by the Ossie Ardiles and Glenn Hoddle Swindon Town teams of the early 1990's, the passing game that Mark Cooper has instilled into his charges bears comparison to those eras and is a breath of fresh air in a division of the football league that can suffer from the long ball game. However, being a child of the 1960's I missed one of the Swindon Town teams that is legend in this part of the West Country. "Bert's Babes" was a young Swindon Town team managed by Bert Head and included the likes of Rod Thomas, Ernie Hunt, Mike Summerbee, John Trollope and Don Rogers. Bert Head assembled a team of youngsters and drilled them in an almost military style, ensuring that his team was amongst the fittest in the league. (Link to "Six Days to Saturday" - Bert Head & Swindon Town) He achieved the first promotion in Swindon Town's history when the club was promoted to the then Division 2 at the end of the 1962/63 season. The foundations he put in place saw these youngsters go on to win the only domestic trophy Swindon Town has won when the club beat Arsenal 3 - 1 to lift the League Cup in 1969 under the stewardship of Danny Williams.

Yesterday's win versus Notts County (2 - 0) sees Swindon Town in a play-off position after a quarter of the season has passed. Plaudits are starting to come in from around the country regarding the team's style of play and, now that the players have gelled together, promotion this season can now be thought of as a very real possibility. Some of this can be attributed to the steadying hand of Jed McCrory who has put the club back on a stable footing. However, when the dust on this season has settled in May 2014, Mark Cooper can fly away to his summer holiday retreat, satisfied in the knowledge that his first season in the manager's hot seat has been a success, whatever position Swindon Town finish in League 1.  

  

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• Football League column - Paolo Di Canio memory banished at Swindon Town

MacDonald Earns the Right to Manage

Everyone connected with Swindon Town, whether an employee, local sports reporter or fan, has probably used the metaphor "roller coaster" to describe the season just ended. With Paolo Di Canio at the helm, promotion to the Championship was a certainty; let's face it, he wouldn't have allowed any other outcome. However, the great proponent of "loyalty" showed his true mettle by upping and leaving the club, the team and the fans when Swindon Town was put up for sale and it was made plain that his days of running roughshod over those who disagreed with him were over. He's now at A.F.C. Sunderland and will find it a struggle to achieve any real success with them - in my opinion. The best place for Di Canio will be the English national team in around ten years time when he has earned the right to take on the rest of the world by leading his adopted country's top footballers in pursuit of the ultimate footballing Holy Grail, the World Cup.

Jed McCrory with Kevin MacDonald

The foremost team in Wiltshire were left in a healthy position in League One and the appointment of Kevin MacDonald, ex-Liverpool F.C. player and football coach at Aston Villa, was a curious nomination by the new Swindon Town board led by Jed McCrory. It took a while for the new First Team Manager to find his feet in his first football management job and, presumably, for the players to adapt to the new regime's modus operandi as compared to the almost military-style methods of the erstwhile Italian management team. The team struggled to achieve match day success under MacDonald's stewardship, but, eventually, things seemed to click and a play-off place was assured. The home match was a cagey affair, somewhat spoilt by the windy conditions and the dubious penalty awarded to Brentford F.C. in the dying seconds of the game. However, at 1 - 1, the match went to Griffin Park on the western outskirts of London finely poised at what was effectively half-time.

The first half hour of the return leg at Brentford saw Swindon Town overwhelmed by an adversary intent on winning at breakneck speed. With only one chance at goal by a soft header from Aden Flint, the early part of the game became one-way traffic with "The Bees" laying siege to Swindon's goal. It was with a sense of relief then, that I, along with every other Swindon Town fan took a sip of our half-time beverage and thanked our lucky stars that the Town were still in the game with the score on the day 2 - 1 to Brentford at the half-way mark. The second half could only get better for the Wiltshire outfit, couldn't it? Well, at the start of phase two of the match, things got worse when Gary Roberts gifted the ball to Brentford's Donaldson with a sloppy cross ball and the Bees' player made it 3 - 1 to the home side. I walked away from the match for five minutes only to return to the coverage like a junkie returning to an opium den, hoping beyond hope that the Town would get something out of the game.

Cue The Great Escape theme tune and some of the most exciting football seen for a long time. Not pretty at times, but totally enthralling and when Joe Devera smashed home Swindon's second, the comeback was on. With virtually the last play of full time, Aden Flint's bullet header wiped the smiles off every Brentford fan's face as the score was levelled and extra time beckoned. A harsh sending off for Swindon's left back, Byrne, saw the advantage swing back to Brentford and, when the whistle went for the end of extra time, most Swindon fans knew that the game was going to be lost on penalties. Like Steve McQueen caught up in the barbed wire after his failed attempt at jumping into Switzerland from war torn Germany, Swindon couldn't overcome their last hurdle and League One awaits next season (at least it's six easy points from Bristol City, though!).

The one positive from all this is that, in my opinion, Kevin MacDonald has proved himself as worthy Manager of Swindon Town. To be able to pick his team up from what must have been the depths of despair in the Town dressing room at half time at Griffin Park, the first 30 minutes of the game being all Brentford, to inspiring the team to put on a gritty, determined display to fight back to 3 - 3 at full time, shows the mark of the new regime now in control at the County Ground. I for one am optimistic for next season.