Thetownend.com

Afternoon folks, not sure if anyone's bored on a Thursday afternoon (as you'll be able to tell, I certainly am) but a potential mildly diverting quiz for you all.

Since the success of our starting strikers in the Stevenage game, I've been thinking a bit about the success or otherwise of our youth team/academy set up in recent years. Being a bit data-nerdy and needing to learn to use a couple of new visualisation tools, I thought I'd build myself a data set using the marvellous work of the good people (person?) over at www.swindon-town-fc.co.uk/

Rather than expecting you all to be interested in my shiny infographics about this, I stuck them all into a Sporcle quiz. So... can you name the 85 Swindon Town youth products to get a squad number since the 2000/2001 season?

https://www.sporcle.com/games/nemostfc/stfc-academy-graduates

To be honest, if I'd not written it I doubt I'd have reached 30!

(Please shout if you see any typos/assorted fuck ups in the quiz, they're entirely likely)

In case anyone is wondering, the qualification is being at Town before signing their first pro contract and being given a squad number at some point. Stats cover the 19 seasons from 2000/1 up until this season (2018/19) which obviously is incomplete. Appearances listed are league only.

Good stuff. Managed 28 in the time. A few with same surnames helped.  :)

I got 26.

Got 32, took me bloody ages to get the one with 109 appearances....

Yeah, I debated turning on full names but that seemed a bit harsh.

36... enjoyed that

Managed to get 53. Shall account that for far too much time spent playing Football Manager over the years!

Surprisingly 34 but forgot look and a few others I should have remembered

26 although loads more that I should have got. 1 or 2 I'd never heard of though.

34

Managed to miss out goalscoring superstar Miles Storey

36. Couldn't get Mr.109 though. I got "him" instead. Should've got the goalscorer from Sunday and one who went to Newcastle. Can we ever dream of getting £1m for a 17 year old again? The irony being that he plays in the same league as the Town now.

24.  :no:

Surely the one who went to Newcastle made more than 2 appearances for us?

And how did the buzzing legend (and son of legend) figure in a post-2000 quiz?

Good point! :hmmm:

He came back and played a game v Forest, in 05, one of the last games of King. Amazingly we won 2-1.

Little did we think when Wes Morgan came on after 70 mins, he'd captain Leicester to win the Prem.

I think Swindon-Town-fc.co.uk may be fallible, for the first time ever. One was a Samsung player, and another a freebie from West Ham.

I was at that game. Quite a buzz at the time about his return too. He could still cross, but it was shining example of why you shouldn’t go back. David Kerslake came back as well for a brief stint at the end - which is often forgotten. Always had a soft spot for him - he was the first poster I had on my wall, from the Friday “Kick Off” Adver supplement.

I quite liked it that he came back for 1 game and we beat Forest, who historically we didn't do so well against... sweated like a  sauna, but could still do a cross.  OK there weren't many Town fans there to see it, but it was the first time we'd managed to beat them, so holds a certain place for me. They got their revenge in the return fixture.

I got 20 before I got bored because I couldn't remember what ian herrings name was. so 21 once I'd googled it then I thought I might as well just leave it at that. Oh and Sam Campanga - had a  go at that, but must have spelt it wrong, was always an enigma of the 90's back of the programme squad numbers.


Don't think Bertie Braley was a youth product. Few other oddities too. Good fun though.

Yep, Brayley is wrong, apologies and will remove. West Ham youth player, we signed him straight onto pro terms. Let me see if you see any other wrong ones. Which Samsung winner is in there? (Antonio, found from Google.)

The error is mine rather than the Oracles here - I was getting a bit lax copying them out towards the end I think.

Summerbee did indeed play one game for Town in the 21st century - he's a cheeky inclusion but he does meet all the criteria. So does Adi Viveash to be fair but I left him out...

Jeez no wonder i only remembered 7...

There’s a few not in there too. The year Campagna was taken on was I think the same year we took McHugh (also in the list), as well as Alan Flanagan (missing) the keeper who played at Bramall Lane, Ricky Culbertson (missing - the NI centre back, who I don’t think we’ve played) and McAreavey.  

There are some names towards the bottom that I’ve never heard of.

Fucking hell Nemo, you're a disgrace.

http://www.swindon-town-fc.co.uk/Person.asp?PersonID=FLANAGAA
http://www.swindon-town-fc.co.uk/Squad.asp?Season=1999-2000

Culbertson & Alan Flanagan was released the season before the cut off for this by the looks of it. Campagna and McHugh both had squad numbers in 2000/01 so make the cut.

Ha! I stand corrected. In case it came across wrong, I wasn’t criticising, merely indulging myself in a time that I could roll off squad numbers, players, minutes we scored in, etc.... whereas now I can turn up and not recognise a player if I walked past them. Love a good quiz and thanks for doing it!

If I took offence that easily I probably wouldn't have spent the last twelve years on the TEF!