Thetownend.com

It's Christmas, I've got bugger all else to do and the current STFC reality is about as enjoyable as listening to Paul Hart explaining that he does in fact have three families in his Christmas bubble, even though it's obvious to all and sundry that he's sat on his own.

So, let's have a nice time being nostalgic about those fleeting times when STFC were competent and had players who were a joy to watch. I'm basically nicking the format and rules of the Guardian's annual top 100 footballers (https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/dec/18/how-the-guardian-ranked-the-100-best-male-footballers-in-the-world-2020) for a Swindon version, voted for by the good people (and to be honest, some of the bad ones) of the TEF.

You can vote for any STFC player, past or (less likely) present, based on their contribution to Town rather than their wider career. You can interpret it as the best players or your favourite, and vote for players you've seen or that you've only heard tell of from older fans, I don't really mind either way. You can vote for up to 40 players, in ranking order (so most points for the player you put 1st, least for the last)- if you can't think of that many that's totally fine, but at least ten or so would be good.

I'll set the deadline for votes at midday on Christmas Eve and do a countdown between Christmas and New Year.

Votes to me via PM please - by all means do use this thread for discussion or advocacy for the player you think deserves recognition.

Good idea

Undecided whether to do my favourite players or the best players, would be 2 very different lists. Either way I’ll stick to players that I’ve actually seen in the flesh

I will have a compile of some great names and pop them through, unlikely many players post 2000 will get in it though TBH.

A few names to whet the whistle....

Chris Kamara
Steve White
Alan McLoughlin
Colin Calderwood
Alan Mayes
Ray McHale
Paul Rideout
Duncan Shearer
Dave Moss
Sir Donald of Rogers
Peter Eastoe

and many many more.

Do we name the players that we have actually seen in a Town short or do we include Harold Fleming and Harry Morris for instance?

Up to you really, I'm expecting it to have a significant recency bias but it's not a scientific exercise anyway, just a nice bit of Christmas nostalgia.

In which case then I will only include players I have seen in person :) nostalgia is not what it used to be any more!

Players from my time covering the Town (1970ish onwards) that I have most enjoyed watching

GK's
Allan Digby Downsborough Foderingham

Full Backs
Bodin Caddis Dixon Kerslake Summerbee

Centre Halfs
Calderwood Gittens Ifil Taylor

Midfield
Ferry Foley Hazard Hoddle Horlock Jones Kamara Kasim Ling Luongo McHale McLoughlin Moncur Ndah

Wingers
Anderson Bamber Miller Moss Ritchie Rogers Walters

Centre Forwards
Austin Coyne Doyle Eastoe Fjortoft Mayes Parkin Rideout Shearer White

I agree with almost all of those Kirky.

Most of the ones I can think of have been mentioned:

GK's
Digby Foderingham

Full Backs
Bodin King Caddis Kerslake Summerbee Ramsay Hockaday

Centre Halfs
Calderwood Gittens Taylor Borrows Kilcline Parkin

Midfield
Ferry Foley Hazard Hoddle Kamara Kasim Ling McLoughlin Moncur

Wingers
Bamber Barnes Ritchie Walters

Centre Forwards
Austin Doyle Fjortoft Parkin Rideout Shearer White Quinn Hay Chief

But if you add loan players then there are oodles that are in or went to the Premier League

Loan players are fine as long as you're picking them for Swindon achievements - I think there's a reasonable case for Doyle, Stephens, Danny Ward etc. but not for Given or Milner types.

No one's yet mentioned one that's in my top five. Ian Culverhouse was smooth as silk, oozed class.

I go back to 1967, so to those named I would add some from that era

Full backs Thomas and Trollope
Centre backs Harland and Burrows

plus Ian Miller and Brian Williams from the late 70s (Midfield/wingers)

Charlie Henry from the Macari era

I can’t believe we’ve had multiple shouts for Doyle and not one for Simon Cox yet.

Definitely my favourite of the three big strikers of the 2000s. Scored great goals and scored a lot of goals too, in some fairly mediocre Town sides.

Lots of strikers in the votes I've had so far, perhaps unsurprisingly. I'll be over here voting for goalkeepers if you need me...

Remember to PM in your 10-40 for the final count as well as the chat here folks!

Don Rogers I saw as a very small boy but he got me hooked on STFC and I’ve been lucky to meet him a few times. Glenn Hoddle was a joy to watch and a really nice guy. David Moss was a player that got you to you feet when he had the ball and I’ll never forget Alan McCormacks goal against Northampton. Fuck me we’ve had some good players

Only eleven players unanimous inclusions so far, very surprised by the amount of variety. Will make the countdown fun though!

I'll include players I've seen so really can only be from the very late 80s onwards. Top my head so far...

GKs
Fraser Digby
Sir Wes Foderingham
Shay Given

FBs
Paul Bodin
Ian Culverhouse
Nathan Byrne
Mark Robinson
Harry Toffolo (Probably one of the most genuine lads I've met too)

CBs
Gordon Greer
Colin Calderwood
Shaun Taylor

MFs
Matt Ritchie
Simon Ferry (all round class act)
Jonathan Swift
Glenn Hoddle
Yaser Kasim (when on form)
Massimo Luongo

FWDs
Charlie Austin
Simon Cox
Alan Connell
James Collins
Craig Maskell
Jan Aage Fjortoft
Sam Parkin
The Chief

Did you say Mark Robinson?  Utter trash, a huge waste of money, definitely up there with my least favourite STFCers of all time.  Absolutely amazed he features anywhere on this list.

I'm pretty sure he played over 300 appearances for Town and was part of the Newcastle side that got into the PL before joining Town. Over 300 apps at any one club is an achievement in itself. Some FL cloggers like Robinson get under appreciated because they just get the job done and go mostly unnoticed. I was a Defender myself so I will be a little more bias on that area.

I'm picking players that as well as saw play, but some because of their character too; like Toffolo, a complete gent yet he wasn't the complete player when at Town. Strikers are fairly easy, if they bang a load of goals in they make the cut. FBs are always going to be trickier to appreciate (unless one from the more modern game and essentially a WB) but they have their place as much as any other position in the game.

All about shallots I guess.

Tom Broadbent.

Moncur, Hazard, McNamee?

Moncur and Hazard I agree with but not the other, he was rubbish.

If we're going for the a hundred players then there are plenty which should be towards the tail end of the list. Just to fill out the numbers if anything else

Old and slow but Ian Woan was always entertaining to watch in a could put the ball anywhere when he had it sort of way. Pretty sure he scored directly from 2 corners in his short playing spell with us (Ikeston and Bury?), might be remembering wrong though.

Alan Macdonald again old, but also went in goal in that qpr away win, also racked up plenty of appearences

Frank Talia bit dodgy but would walk into our team at the moment, and the Charlton away game when they were top and we were bottom was one of the finest gk performances I've ever seen.

Just a loan but always though Jimmy Davis had the potential as a youngster, looked like he'd be good in the same way as Milner and Carrick did when they were on loan to us.

Scott Leitch was the better footballer out of the McMahon era badboys of him and Bullock and Collins

Honestly trying to name people others wouldn't.

Ian Culverhouse and Mark Robinson were everpresent in the div 2 champ season.

Favourites seen:

Downsborough, Digby & Given

Trollope, Thomas, Rambo, Kerslake, Bodin, Sol Davis, Lesh

Burrows, Gittens, Calderwood, Taylor & Gittens

Kamara, McHale, Cuervo, Igoe, McLoughlin, Hoddle, Moncur, Luongo, SiFi

Syrett, Mayes, Eastoe, Finney, The Chief, Chalky, Austen & Doyle

The Don, Moss, Barnes, Walters, Jimmy Davis & Ritchie

Do remember to PM me your rankings as well as posting in here mind. I do think the lower ranks will probably be more interesting than the top ten or so which are much more predictable - I'll try and go out to 100 as long as we have enough votes.

One to add to the already growing list for me... Sammy Igoe for:
- that thunderous free-kick against Bradford just after Sam Parkin got sent off and the ginger bloke invading the pitch to throw a punch at one of their centre backs #memories
- the most hilarious reason ever for being out ruled out as injured for a game by managing to superglue his eye closed

What a legend

Colin Gordon needs mentioning.

Don't tell Jayo  ;)

Alan Mayes, Tom Jones & Howard Pritchard were all decent

McNamee was shite. My favourite Town player ever was Darren Bullock.

 :D

Adding three loaness in Hal Robson-Kanu, Darius Henderson and Alex Pritchard to the list.

HR-K - I really thought at the time Town would mange to get permanently as you knew he was a talented yet developing player. Town really helped kick on his career transitioning out of youths to full pro football. The following season, full Welsh caps would ensue and the rest they say is hanes.

Henderson - I thought Town would go all out to sign perm too, for a player on loan to make such an impressive impact - the prospect of seeing him sign at Town would've felt likely but I think he ended up at Watford."If only" taunts me, as his record was great for Town...the Sutton Pele  :hmmm:

Pritchard - considering after having the immense Matt Ritchie you wouldn't think many would come close but Pritchard certainly is in a similar mold to MR. Loved getting amongst it with a yellow or two (probably slightly to his own detriment) but was a player who fought for the cause and if it wasn't at Town you knew he would go on to better things.

Very much my own fault for not giving clear instructions, but if you are sending me lists please do put them in some sort of order, otherwise the ranking gets a lot more difficult.

To be clear, discussion in this thread is fun to read (some of you are alarmingly wrong :D) but I'm only scoring PM lists for the final countdown.

I'll DM in due course.

When is the deadline again, Nemo?  :)

 Players Watched

Goalkeepers
Peter Downsborough
Fraser Digby
Wes Fodringham

Full Backs
Rod Thomas
John Trollope
David Kerslake
Nicky Summerbee

Centre Backs
Frank Burrows
Stan Harland
Mel Nurse
Colin Calderwood
Shaun Taylor

Midfield
John Smith (made that 69 team tick)
Ray Mchale
Brian Williams
John Moncur
Micky Hazard

Wingers
Don Rogers
Dave Bamber
Windy Miller
Dave Moss

Strikers
Peter Noble
Pat Terry (Best header of a ball ever seen}
James Quinn
Alan Mayes
Jan A Fjortoft
Duncan Shearer
Charlie Austin
Steve White
Keith East

Xmas Eve, I'll start the countdown then.

Roy Wegerle brief loan spell but still class and Paul Allen

I agree re Roy Wegerle, i saw all 7 games he played for us and he was class, scored a good goal against Bradford at home. I didn't include him in my list of players i sent to Nemo, as i tried to include players i had seen play more than a few games for us though.

Good point and makes us appreciate some of the class players we've been privileged to see over the last 30/40 years

Thanks Mr Fish :)

No one mention Ross McLaren and Tom Jones yet?

Assume Lou Macari, Ozzy Ardiles and Steve McMahon don't count.

I first watched STFC regularly in the late forties  and fifties. They were dire, but  Maurice Owen was an outstanding number 9,  scoring 165 goals in 601 appearances.

There have been some excellent calls for the less obvious players.  Very few of us will have seen Maurice Owen but he was obviously a key player of his era.  I have belatedly recalled a couple more favourites of my own, perhaps deserving of inclusion.

They were both 100% and combative stalwarts who each hit the headlines.  Kenny Stroud, of the scorching FAC 3 equaliser v Everton and the late, great Andy Rowland of the extra time decider v Arsenal in the FLC 1/4 Final.

Gk: Digby, Foderingham
FB: Kerslake, Culverhouse, Bodin, Cuervo, Trollope
CB: Calderwood, Taylor, Gittens, Greer
CM: Hoddle, Moncur, Horlock, Ling, Leitch, Foley, Kasim, Luongo
RM/LM: Walters, Ritchie, Summerbee
CF: Fjortoft, Austin, Shearer, Cox, Parkin, Mayes, Rowland

A less obvious one could be JPM, consistent and played over 100 games..

Ian Woan

I take issue with that!

Me too. I distinctly remember him taking his foot off the pedal once he was awarded a contract extension.

Exactly that. Pre-contract renewel = prime JPM. Post contract...meh

That said, I quite liked him, had talent.

Massively inconsitent and often lazy.

Really liked Ian Woan, model professional and a very classy player

Lecsinel Jean-François*

I thought that he was still with us, although he did have health issues if I remember?

:D him too

Yes I agree a very classy player who always conducted himself and had a great left foot

He looked alive when I saw him walking through town last Sunday.

Bobby Barnes and Tim Parkin I'll bring to the table.

Tim Parkin looked terrible in his first season for us after joining from Rovers despit eplaying almost the whole season but was player of the year in his 2nd, total turn around, decent player.

I only remember him being very good but I'll take your word for it. Not saying they should be in the 100 but there's been some awful shouts so far and these 2 for me should at least be considered.

Definately 2 really good players, at one point in the first 20 games or so Parkin asked Lou for a transfer as it wasn't working for him, but Lou refused and said knuckle down and get on with it, which he did, with some success.

Bobby Barnes would look like Raheem Sterling is to Lloyd Isgrove if you compared him to MacNamee and JPM etc etc as footballers already mentioned, hugely under rated player.

I thought I already did a couple of pages ago! :-)

To be honest, I don't think there are many out of the 80s team that would NOT go in this list.

In which case you oldies need to get voting as the 90s onwards are dominating at the moment...

Despite a certain amount of decent competition, I must nominate myself for "Dunce post of the year"

I'd googled to check Andy really DID score the actual winner v Arsenal and came across a PFA tribute to an Andy Rowland who'd died in 2017.  

I was disappointed Swindon did not get a mention and mildly surprised to see that he'd gone on to build a career as a regulator for a couple of Dutch banks - but obviously not nearly surprised enough.  :doh:

Sorry Andy

Scott Leitch
Kieran O'Regan
Paul Rideout
Dave Bennett
Nestor Lorenzo!

You make him sound like a solo orchestra :)

Or Daniel Day-Lewis?

Chris Kamara and Andy Rowland.
Everyone else was shit. :)

Apologies, I missed your mention of Barnes.

Micky Hazard

Hi guys!

A perfect thread for this but just dropping in to say we feature your former player Si Ferry in our 2nd edition and he talks at great length about Swindon Town and Di Canio so thought you might be interested!

Here is the link to our mag if you are:

https://www.stonewallermag.co.uk/product-page/stonewaller-magazine-number-2

Cheers guys and stay safe!

Okay, I've now had votes for more than 100 players so at least someone is missing out.

48 hours more for PM votes - I'll try and include votes made in the thread somehow but if you want to contribute fully then please do, have far fewer votes than we have posts in this thread!

I don’t think I’ve seen Doughtys name on this thread, which is harsh considering even Anthony fucking McNamee has been mentioned.

I've voted for him when i sent my list to Nemo by PM

Doughty has a few votes. There aren't too many people I was expecting who haven't now, apart from the pre-70s guys who are definitely struggling. Looking forward to writing my justification for JP McGovern over Don Rogers already...

wtaf.

Anyone not voting for the Don because they haven't seen him:

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=don+rogers+swindon&&view=detail&mid=3E6A051AF55E6C70350E3E6A051AF55E6C70350E&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Ddon%2Brogers%2Bswindon%26FORM%3DHDRSC3

Absolutely yes, but the march of time means that anyone who saw Don live is now 55 plus. That's a big chunk of the forum who only know of him by legend - and then if you vote for Don, do you vote for Harold Fleming?

I didn't vote for Don although I saw him play many times because I thought he was a shoe-in. I would like to add Roger Smart to the list, greatly underrated IMO.

That is very fair.  It will be excellent to have an up to date take.  Perhaps it is time to have a road named after the winner of the TEF poll?  We all know Fleming Way but did Harry Morris ever get a road named after him?

I included Eoin Doyle in my favourite strikers because, amongst other things, his 11 on the trot feat equalled a 90 year old  record I had always presumed would remain unequalled.

Just looking through the ex players list, those that I enjoyed watching, in no particular order

Arthur Horsefield, Bobby Barnes, Tommy Jenkins, Dave Bamber, Davis Moss, Peter Downsborough, Micky Hazard, Glen Hoddle, Ray McHale, Ian Millar, Colin Calderwood, Peter Eastoe, Alan Mayes, Roy Carter, Simon Cox, Bryan Williams, Chris Kamara, David Kerslake, Jimmy Quinn and David Peach (only joking  :()

Rogers was obviously the cream of the crop.
Have only ever seen one player with the same speed and smoothness of motion - J J Okoacha late of Bolton !

Last 24 (well, 22 and a bit) hours for nominations - up to 40 names to me via PM by noon tomorrow to count towards the rankings. If you can only think of ten that's totally fine.

I've got a method to include names mentioned in the thread a bit, but a heavy balance towards people who voted via PM.

Then I'll do a countdown between Christmas and New Year.

Get the votes in folks, particularly those whose memories stretch back beyond the 90s!

Submitted  :eek:

Just tipped over 150 individuals mentioned at least once in thread & in PM votes. There are a few outliers, but the top 20 or so is pretty stable now. Still time to change that though, lurking Oxford fans - vote for Vigouroux (and I'm not just saying that as I'm the only person who included him so far...)

Frazer Digby
Nicky Summerbee
Colin Calderwood
Shaun Taylor
Glenn Hoddle
Chris Kamara
Micky Hazard
Charlie Austin
Alan Mayes  (Just for the goal he scored against Arsenal)
Mark Walters
Jon Moncur

Now or never folks, votes in via PM in the next two hours or so, then I'll start totalling up.

Just because I haven’t seen him mentioned

Stefani Miglioranzi

Have we had Luc Nijholt?

I'm not sure if cult heroes are allowed but if they are I'll add Steve 'Turbo' Robinson.

Or King Broadent.

No George Ndah🤔 Cracking player with lots of pace and scored a few also was Brian Howard missed out?

Surprised there’s no text about Brian Williams on Richard B’s site. I don’t remember him having a beard during his time at Town. He was a famously combative RB signed from Bristol Rovers I think who had thighs like tree trunks and was universally known as Animal.

Merry Christmas TEF.

We signbwd him from QPR and he went on to play for both Bristol Rovers & City and as far as I can remember he was always a left sided winger

Animal who in his time with Swindon reminded me of the Yorkshire Ripper in looks with his beard, he started with a 70s pornstar moustache but quickly grew a full beard or visa versa! he had facial hair for his entire Swindon stay. He was always a left back or left winger, hard as nails and absolutely solidly built.

Had a fight with Peter Beardsley when the ugly 1 played for Carlisle, basically he thumped the back of Beardsely so hard it echoed all round the ground, he was sent off and Gordon Staniforth waded in to protect PB and was also sent off.

One of my all time fave players and he was on my list submitted, as was George N'Dah.

(https://i.postimg.cc/MZLTTJvQ/Swindon-Town-1979-80.png)

Memory tells me he once picked up an opposing player, who was shielding the ball legally or otherwise, and three him out the way. Ran off with the ball to cheers all round as though nothing unusual had happened. Met him a couple of times and was always friendly.

He would be too hard for the modern game and allegedly Bobby Smith was sh*gging his wife😁