Thetownend.com

I thought it might be nice to have a thread where people post their favourite moments from games or great memories, just to remind us why we are all here!


I'll start with this Mark Walters goal. I practiced emulating the Cruyff turn and left foot curler again and again for months after this! A loss in the game but a full house in the Championship and one of the best Swindon goals I've seen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEa9xwX4toI (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEa9xwX4toI)

For me this wins hands down in my time of being a Town fan (1974 on).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1Kg8P67Dlk

Even getting to the Premier League and the games at Wembley for the play offs don't beat it.

Arsenal were a top top club and their line up that day had 9 internationals.

  Jennings
  Hollins
  Young
  Devine
  O'Leary
  Walford
  Talbot
  Rix
  Brady
  Sunderland
  Stapleton

This came to mind.
A dismal season & a shitty time for all of us, but a moment of joy amidst the gloom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAIKSKsCXYo

I remember Mark Walters scoring a beautiful lob, same game that Horlock handled on the line and got sent off. Any idea who that was against? I can’t remember for the life of me

It really was a rare highlight in that period!

This is mine too, made all the more of a special moment because it was my birthday

Can someone get the Pox Commentary ?!> Calamity!!

First taste of playoffs (having just missed the Brighton last minute equaliser in 03/04).

Martin Tyler makes it even better - AUSTIN GOING IN!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-IX5UNCyUg&pp=ygUUYXVzdGluIGdvYWwgY2hhcmx0b24%3D

Continuing the theme of nothing great really happening in the 21st century, the screamer in this game from Ty Gooden always sticks in my mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik7JXpnb3nU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip2NyXTbEn8 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip2NyXTbEn8)

What a moment this winner was...

Shaun Close scoring against Oxford

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uBFAytrQOw

Getting to Wembley in 1990 by beating Blackburn. I was only 1 in 1969, and i remember coming out of Kenilworth Road in 1988 after losing the Simod Cup semi-final thinking that was my chance gone of seeing us at Wembley.

What happened afterwards sucks, but my memory of that evening still sticks with me, invading the pitch at the end, celebrating etc.

https://youtu.be/ZFILAVuQ-Do?si=qInK7c4_iWVY-qWw


Didn't turn out great but what a moment

In my top 3 probably which is a little sad bearing in mind the circumstances but what a moment.

https://youtu.be/S7MlYvyTK1w?si=s8y0cYguCPPhxMGh

An absolutely mental way to win the opening match of the season

Three games for me all in the same season 79/80

Arsenal away 1-1 league cup quarter final - no footage anywhere
Arsenal home in the league cup replay - JJ has covered above

Wolves home in the first leg of the league cup semi final 2-1
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y6WsXrTvkSk&pp=ygUWU3dpbmRvbiAyIHdvbGVzIDEgMTk4MA%3D%3D

I loved Doughty. What a guy.

Season didn't really go anywhere after this, but Barry Corr's late equaliser at home against Leicester sticks in my head as what the kids would call "limbs". Two goals in two minutes to equalise against a far better side who were top of the league at the time and ended up racking up 96 for the season. Drew with them away as well.

We finished 15th, one place ahead of Brighton and Hove Albion, who haven't done much since.

1:11 start for the Corr goal as embedding doesn't seem to keep the time.

https://youtu.be/9f52Od41hUY?feature=shared&t=71

If only we could have that Arsenal away 1-1 footage.
Probably my favourite ever away game.

I can still see the goal and ensuing celebrations.
What an away following and packed in the Clock End of Highbury. Ian Miller terrorised Sammy Nelson.

Also this game too. The 8-0 thrashing of Bury only a couple of days before the Arsenal game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VG0qUIiKvo

What great memories JJ from 78-80, greet cup runs and coming so close to promotion.

I Was thinking this or Bobby Barnes away to Birmingham i think it was but always this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EYx48rLAK4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeGA7sA8HDw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeGA7sA8HDw)

Not football per se but an absolutely brilliant moment that still makes me laugh.

https://youtu.be/mH2eLXzWUUM?si=mC1s79tn4ZFOJkCa

I always attribute this game to the one that good me hooked good and proper to Swindon Town FC.

Rory Fallon overhead kick against Bristol City, are you kidding me?

Felt like the roof was about to come off when that went in.

(https://i2-prod.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/article5128269.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/0_GettyImages-459025948.jpg)

Is it sad to say this was a great moment...? #Cauldron

4-0 at halftime.
Remember it well.

The best days of my life standing in the TE as a kid.

How could we not forget this one Jimmy / Venks.

https://youtu.be/dOo58OESKxY?si=YmiIazKhg6dmJKWA

The Commentary Man, just superb.
What a time to be alive.

1-1 draw with Swansea on New Year’s Day.

Barry Corr sent off after 20 minutes.
Pretty certain Dave ‘Budgie’ Byrne was in caretaker charge at this point.
Rather than playing 441 with 1 upfront he took Zaaboub off straight away and bought Paynter on to go 432 and play for the win.

This was against top of the league and future champions Swansea who had won 6 on the bounce.

I remember us giving it a bloody good go and being fully in the match (although the video highlights don’t really show this)

Swansea scored in the 87th minute

…and again the video doesn’t show this but this is how I remember it anyway…

The CG just roared when Swansea scored. Like a pure primal animalistic roar. All the home fans in unison. No ‘for fuck sake Swindon’ no ‘same old Swindon’ I was back of the Nationwide I couldn’t hear the Swansea fans celebrating their goal.

That roar really galvanised the players and we got up and went right back at Swansea even though it was after 90 minutes. We then got a last minute penalty which Coxy tucked away and we got a point against the league leaders whilst playing with 10 men for nearly 80 minutes.

Never before or since have I even heard a roar like that for the CG - let alone after conceding a goal.


…the video highlights literally show none of what I mentioned above - so I hope it wasn’t some sort of fever dream and someone else remembers it like I do

Nah I remember it clearly. I was hungover and the response to going 1-0 down made me cry

Yeah, think this was the era where i would have been said 3-4 rows behind you.
Maybe most of the crowd was hungover and that’s why it happened.

Absolutely remember this, and particularly remember it being about as soft a penalty as you can get and not giving the slightest fuck.

Cox gets taken out!

Cox was a superb player. Shame we never got to "bring him home" for "one last dance" etc etc.

Who could forget these 2 belters from Steve Robinson. Nothing better than standing in the Cuckoo Lane watching them hit the net
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv27jBwiu0Q

I did forget the Watford game even tho I was there in the Townend! Also Swansea away on the Boxing Day was a great day.

The manager pelting down the wing makes for a good memory.

http://youtu.be/O7EYdbrDxSo

Mrs was fuming after this goal as I nearly punched out the patio doors celebrating. Kind of killed the moment.

Swindon losing 3-2 to Blackburn in the (league cup?) is one of my earliest memories. Think I’m right in saying goals by Finney and The Chief put us 2-0 up before a Shearer master class, and Bodin missing a penalty at the death. If I’ve got any of that wrong one of my very earliest memories isn’t that clear.

Perhaps not a great moment per se as we lost, but a brilliant game where we held are own for large parts and even bested them at others.

Shearer was probably close to the peak of his powers then.

He suddenly realised Blackburn had a game on their hands and just turned it on, won the game and that was that. Such a phenomenal player.

Even if we’d won - I think it was still two legs back then…

Pretty sure it was the same year he moved to Newcastle so yup, peak Shearer

Blackburn were the Champions of England at the time so would have been the early stages of the 95/96 season. So less than a year later he would have shown out at Euro 96 & gone home to Newcastle…

Found it. Shearer’s second…talk about a thumping finish.

https://youtu.be/PZIcQR0C3Fc?si=vAG6tyEuvQhtqyRu

😎
https://youtu.be/aMsARnMuHwk?si=g8B62N9kZE-Jnmc0

I was there  ::)

Saw Shearer play at Southampton alongside Le Tissier.
Scored a header right in front of me to beat Chelsea at the Dell, from an MLT corner. I was in the away end 🙂

This one still gives goose pimples. Charlie, Charlie Henry's volley against the Gills and runs half the length of the pitch. If you were there you knew how loud it was when that went in. https://youtu.be/hdn_K0_D7QE?si=EBJwUOXn961TM3R0

...and following on from that.
Despite the traffic, what a great night.

http://youtu.be/AVhDl41xMG4

Another classic.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HHulGXD0fhs&pp=ygUUc3dpbmRvbiB3aWdhbiBmYSBjdXA%3D (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HHulGXD0fhs&pp=ygUUc3dpbmRvbiB3aWdhbiBmYSBjdXA%3D)

Peak Paolo. Caddis, Ferry, Ritchie et al in their pomp. We were playing such good football.

Good shout. Benson was about 100 miles offside

Best night game ever

Heartbreaker for me that evening

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDOJZR77r4Q

The police were called out on me for this one - was watching with my brother in his corner house and celebrated a little loudly, about 10 minutes later the policeman knocked the door to check everything was OK.

Ignore me, I was thinking the away leg

I was right behind this in the town end. It looked like it was going over until it got within about a yard or two of the goal and the had a wicked dip. Ran straight to the front and went mental.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=7dRgbBbIu3c

The first couple of minutes of this were amazing, probably the best start i've ever seen.

No disrespect to Turbo but proves how important local derbies are in this country. An average/non spectacular player can write his name in a clubs history. Same with Tom Broadbent who pops back and gets many free pints around town on match day.

Just brilliant.

Great away kit that.

I was in the side stand and one of the main lads that ended up on the pitch actually ran from the side. Some effort.

Never been as depressed at half time as this in all my life I think. Just didn't see a way back.

Proper lower league side this. No tippy tappy shite and yet not a set of bully boys. Somewhat direct while still being good passing. Something recent Swindon teams seem to have thought cannot be the case. Its either been 84 million passes around the back or we're "not playing the right way"

Gary Flitcroft wanst a word.

Couple of random thoughts.

1. What a service the chap who does swindon-town-fc.co.uk provides us all. Absolute historian. Needs to be protected that website.

2. I used to wish we'd move to the box style nets when they started to become a thing, as I thought they looked better, but there is a decent amount of nostalgia now and everyone has them so going back to the old style would probably be quite cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy_jsizI0zg&ab_channel=Swindon-Town-FC.co.uk

Possibly the first time I ever saw us absolutely pump someone. Uncle took me to this as was kid for a quid, I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RlqGnZp5fI&ab_channel=Swindon-Town-FC.co.uk

Smashing Oxford.

We really are so lucky to have it. I'd gladly donate a few quid towards the costs if he had that option on there.

I concur.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWy-G4cNQWk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWy-G4cNQWk)

This is right up there. Remember seeing their starting XI and thinking yikes! We gave a good account of ourselves and the goal was magic.

That pumping was enhanced by the fact that Huddersfield's manager was none other than a one-time Pox legend, Brian Horton.  As the goal tally started to mount, so did the volume of the chants.......

"Cheer up Brian Horton,
Oh what can it mean,
to a sad Oxford bastard
With a shit football team"

An unexpectedly great night!

Also the video of KKH leaving KdB on his arse and the Citeh legends subsequent response.

So good. From the penalty save to a few minutes after our goal was as rocking as I can remember the CG in recent times.

Jordan Lyden put in a cracking tackle on the follow up to the penalty.

Rich Banyard, top fella. In the past at least he's turned down funding, but he does have tasks he's happy to farm out if people have time to donate - I've written a bunch of the more recent player profiles for example, and I know a few others on here have done things as well. He's on Twitter and IG.

Should see if the club can donate a signed shirt a year or something to auction off to go towards the cost of it. Definitely has to be protected.

Ah looks like I already follow him on twitter.

You mean his goal in the away game, that was the home one to go 2-0 up

Oh yeah, looks like i wasn't the only one to make that strange mistake.

Wasn't sure where to stick this post...

I saw someone online mentioning the 1990 Play Off win and subsequent shenanigans and saying that Honda had been on the verge of getting involved, or words to that effect.

Anyone know about that?

I was working at the club then and yes it is true that discussions were ongoing between the club and Honda over investment. Honda wanted a top board member and chairman but also insisted that we play in white and green the corporate colour scheme of Honda.

It was said to be a very large investment of several million with them taking over the club almost entirely, but no agreement actually got close to being sorted out.

Would they have settled on a white and green away kit I wonder?

I think that was just one of the provisos, I dont think it came down to that, more likely that they wanted the controlling share of the club. IIRC Sir Seton Wills ended up as new owner after the Honda deal collapsed.

Interesting 'what if?' Thanks for the info.

Definitely is. I wonder why it collapsed so quickly. I had heard this before growing up in relation to the board member thing potentially being an issue but my dads a taxi driver so took the info with a heavy grain of salt as he could have got it from anywhere.

IIRC talks were ongoing for a few months, it wasnt over quickly. I also heard the club approached Honda not visa versa, no idea how close it actually got but there were talks between the club and Honda.

Strange that to my knowledge we never really managed to get them on board in any capacity after that.

A lot of the bigger companies in the Town seem to avoid the club. WH Smith another for example. Intel have dipped in and out.

Was thinking about Super Sammy Parkin...

I feel like he's been a bit hard done by being missed off the 'Striker Mural' at the CG. Scored many more than Coxy and Chaz.

A real hero of mine. I saw him as a sort of lower league Alan Shearer type. A proper number 9.

Provided many great moments. I had a T-shirt from the club shop that said "Is it a bird, is it a plane, no it's Super Sam!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqTUTqx3I3A&t=287s&pp=ygUQc2FtIHBhcmtpbiBnb2Fscw%3D%3D (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqTUTqx3I3A&t=287s&pp=ygUQc2FtIHBhcmtpbiBnb2Fscw%3D%3D)

I watched this a couple of months back and asked Sam why on earth he was taking his first few penalties with this left and then switched to his right later on. He'd had no idea why :)

Loved SSP. Always felt like we had a chance with him on the pitch.

Remember the rumours of him leaving and then watching him drive away after the last game of the season before signing for Ipswich.

Sad for 15 year old me!

Obviously you are a bit too young to remember him but big Dunc the hunk Shearer was probably the closest player we ever had to Alan Shearer, a proper all round number 10 with pace, great finishing with both feet, could hit long shots and head a ball too. Scored 97 goals for Town in 192 games. The perfect number 9.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=630922070723071

Watch this, skip forward to 21:10 and see the turn and finish vs Watford, amazing striker and he did that many times for Town.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhOR0ujNHZk&t=1040s

Remember when we bid £250,000 for Mick Channon?

How did we have that sort of money then?

I'm always amazed at the transfer money from back before the ITV Digital bust...

Mark Robinson for £600k in 1994 being a prime example!!

I get that Bosman changed everything and that the wages are probably where the money goes now but still...

Yeah. What’s the equivalent of £250,000 nowadays.

Just checked £4.25m!

The money from the 4th round of the FA vs Spurs and the LC QF vs Arsenal and SF vs Wolves.

Sh, the magic of the cup(s). In the days when we were a feared cup opponent.

The thing was, we bid for Mick Channon before those cup games. It was January 1979 when we tried to sign him, and as he said no we signed Alan Mayes instead. That wasn't a bad decision.

The cup games paid for David Peach!

My mistake I thought it was in 1980 we bid for him, the official bid was £175,000 apparently. Mick was a good friend of Willie Carson, Julian Wilson and Jenny Pitman and I think that connection helped, also he comes from Wiltshire and didnt enjoy life in the North at the time.

Arguably more successful as a racehorse trainer than a footballer.

I sometimes go back to Rich's site to look who's scored the most goals for us.
Steve White's amount alway surprises me and Paynter's

http://swindon-town-fc.co.uk/StatAttack/PlayerMostAndLeast.asp?Type=Goals

And Messrs Barrett & Cockerill.
Not sure if we paid fees for both though.
A pity that it didn't work out for GC at Swindon, went on to shine for Southampton.

1 player from the last 25 years in the top 25… ouch!

Yeah but look how many box entries!

Anyone who scores any goals for us these days would be sold quick sharp. Wakeling didn't even score many goals and he still got a move!

I’d prefer to say we got money!

Surely Charlie will be in the top 25 come the end of this season?

With players rarely sticking around for more that 2-3 seasons maximum these days what are the chances that we ever have a player reach 100 goals again? Assuming Charlie makes to 50 i'm not too convinced anyone else will reach that mark again.

It only takes one 20 goal season these days to get an upward move

Yes it was, i think we paid £110K for GC and £150K for David Peach.

Probably a bit early for Glenn maybe.

Colin Barrett i'm sure was a free. Always wondered how he passed the medical as he played about 5 games and that was it. Ended up moving to Andover in the Southern League in 1981 aged 28 and seeing as he won the First Division championship in 1978 with Forest (played 35 of the 42 games) and the League Cup Final in 1979 he must have been well and truly crocked when he got to us to end up at Andover the following year.

My Dad always told me we nearly signed Mick Channon as a youngster but Southampton signed him on a Sunday before we could which was unheard of in 1964.

https://www.saintsplayers.co.uk/player/mick-channon/

Not an on the pitch moment but what great fun this period was:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0L9lsu88bw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0L9lsu88bw)

Not sure where to put this, so ironically dumping it in here!

When did we last have a season with zero televised games?

(Unless I’ve going senile and forgotten one this season!)

Just be thankful that the First Round FA cup tie wasn't televised.

We’ve probably got a ‘don’t touch with a barge pole’ notice covering the club.

Last season?

Noticed that on this day 1989 was the three pens awarded against us game in what seemed like 5-10 minutes away at West Brom.

Remember it well.
West Mids police were particularly voracious when it came to nicking anything that moved in those days, closely followed by the match day stewards in grounds throughout the region.

Remember jumping up & down flicking double v signs at the home end after the first miss, but luckily just looked behind to see an officer waiting to pounce ahead of the 2nd miss so was mindful of the celebration.

Happy days.

I remember shouting “Cheating Brummie Bastards” at them, only to be told by the Stewards, “we’re not brummies”, didn’t seem to object to cheating or bastards