https://theathletic.com/4858979/2023/09/14/jake-young-swindon-bradford-efl-goals/Nice to get some good recognition in the national media.
"‘Swindon Town (on loan from Bradford City)’ is starting to become shorthand for a striker filling their boots with League Two goals.
Four years ago, Eoin Doyle made the move from Yorkshire to the south west of England and by the end of the 2019-20 season in English football’s fourth tier he was its Golden Boot winner and a champion of the division under Richie Wellens — enough to give his ninth-placed parent club a headache of regret.
Lesson learned? Not really. Jake Young has now moved on loan to the County Ground from Bradford and made a flying start in his first six games.
The 22-year-old has nine league goals already, four more than Mark Hughes’ entire squad, and picked up the League Two player of the month award for August. Michael Flynn’s team are fifth, 11 places above Bradford, and history appears to be repeating itself with Swindon building a reputation as the place where strikers go on loan to be reborn.
Young has plenty of EFL experience despite his young age, after leaving Sheffield United at the end of his contract in 2020 before a breakthrough in senior football at Forest Green Rovers and a subsequent spell at Barrow. Two goals in seven games in his first season at Valley Parade meant this season he stood more chance of minutes elsewhere and a return to Swindon, the city where he lived during his spell at Forest Green, 30 miles (50km) away, has been the perfect remedy.
Familiarity at a home away from home, in addition to his enjoyment playing in a front two alongside veteran Charlie Austin under Flynn, has been crucial, with the small details like being able to visit the same barber as when he last lived in the area two years ago playing a part, according to Young. But mindset has been crucial.
“I’m here to prove a point,” he told Sky Sports. “I’ve got to be confident, I’ve got to believe I can play in any team in this league and unfortunately that didn’t work out at Bradford.
“I’m here to improve and help Swindon with awards and goals and assists — it’s proving myself right in knowing that I am a good player.”
Bradford fans could be forgiven for feeling they are cursed, despite retaining the services of star man and last season’s League Two Golden Boot winner Andy Cook. After extra-time defeat to eventual winners Carlisle United in the play-off semi-finals last season, the start of 2023-24 has been more challenging with two wins, three draws and two defeats.
Walsall had similar luck with a loan striker last season when fellow fourth-tier side Mansfield Town’s Danny Johnson scored 12 goals in 22 games for them before being recalled in January, after which he only made a further eight appearances for his parent club. Johnson eventually moved to Walsall permanently this summer after an initial bid was rebuffed in the winter window. Likewise at Carlisle United, loan defender Ben Barclay was instrumental in their progress to last season’s League Two play-off final against Stockport County — his parent club. Though he was not allowed to play that day at Wembley, he has since signed for Carlisle permanently following their promotion to League One.
It seems Young, like Doyle before him, has found the perfect fit at Swindon after bagging a goal every 53 minutes including a four-goal haul in 24 minutes in a 6-0 rout of Crawley Town on August 26. He and fellow loanee Dan Kemp, borrowed for the season from League Two rivals Franchise, have given Swindon welcome extra oomph up front. Kemp’s five goals in seven games have been crucial in big scoring games against Wrexham (a 5-5 draw where he scored two), Sutton United (one in a 5-3 Swindon win) and Crawley (one goal).
Last season’s top scorer for Swindon was Jonny Williams with 10 goals but Young has some way to go to match Doyle’s 25 goals season from 2019-20 when the season was ended early due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This loan partnership between Young and Kemp has echoes of that same campaign as Jerry Yates joined on loan from Rotherham United to partner Doyle, adding 13 goals and one assist.
The secret for Doyle, who picked up the nickname ‘The Ginger Pele’, was a good understanding with then-manager Wellens who was his boss at Oldham Athletic too. Doyle lived in Liverpool with his family while playing for Swindon, a three-hour drive to the south. With Wellens’ support, he developed a plan that saw him leave the north west at 5am and travel to training, with stopovers allowing him to split his time accordingly.
Living arrangements could be playing their part in Young’s flying start as he shares accommodation with Kemp.
Swindon remain one of two sides in the league yet to lose, alongside Mansfield, and have a game in hand on teams above them.
Kemp’s and Young’s statistics from the limited sample of games they have played are encouraging, with both ranking inside the top five players in the division for non-penalty expected goals — xG measures the quality of a shot and can give an idea of how many goals a player or team should have scored on average, given the shots taken — with 0.59 (Young) and 0.57 (Kemp) behind Ali Al-Hamadi of AFC Wimbledon (0.59), Sam Dalby of Wrexham (0.71) and Notts County’s Macaulay Langstaff (0.78).
Young is outperforming his xG with Kemp’s support as a good ball carrier (he has the second-most chance creating carries in the league with 17 behind Wimbledon’s James Tilley — 21) key to Swindon’s strong start.
“As an attacking player, it’s massively exciting; the amount of goals we’ve scored is a massive credit to all the players that have chipped in and even the players involved in the build-up,” Kemp said after Swindon’s most recent win, against Sutton. “It’s a collective and when we attack as a team I don’t think anyone can live with us.
“We’re loving it. Me and Youngy get on fantastically well but collectively everyone is loving it. When you’re winning and you’re playing the style that we play, in the way the manager wants us to play, there’s no better team to be in.”
The challenge once again for Swindon — and Bradford — will be knowing what to do in January if Young continues in the same form. During Doyle’s loan, Bradford recalled the player, which forced Swindon’s hand to make the move permanent before he left for Bolton Wanderers a few months later when his short-term contract expired.
For now, Flynn remains optimistic that Young and Kemp will be at the club for the whole season.
“They are on season-long loans,” he said in August. “There is a small break clause in both, but it is only a small one. Now, unless they’re going to go back and play at their clubs or somebody puts in a ridiculous offer for one of them that the other club can’t turn down, I’d like to think — in good faith — that they’ll be here for the duration of the season.”
