Thetownend.com

For those who can be bothered, how about anyone's top 5 of anything Town related during your time as a fan? i.e. Top 5 games seen, managers, goals, keepers,chants ,kits, wingers etc.....
I'll start with top 5 central defenders
1 Colin Calderwood
2 Stan Harland
3 Shaun Taylor
4 Frank Burrows
5 Ian Culverhouse

1 Everton fans walking on top of the shrivenham road stand.
2 Spurs fans setting a hot dog stand on fire.
3 Millwall fans with a massive drum on the bank.
4 Pompey fans running across the pitch towards the Townend.
5 A few thousand Villa fans outside the shrivenham road stand trying to force entry during the game.

Australians

1. Danny Invincible
2. Massimo Luongo
3. Frank Talia
4. Jordan Lyden
5. Royce Brownlie







95895442658562565246245554524574554895225654155546545655486539516652. Clem Morfuni.

5 epic performances followed by ultimate heartbreak -

1979 - 4-3 home league cup quarter final win against Arsenal with Andy Rowlands winner in extra time. Lose against Wolves in the semi-final 4-3 on aggregate not helped by an appalling foul on goalkeeper Jimmy Allan.

2010 - Play off semi final win at Charlton 5-4 on pens after Gordon Greers sending off. Danny Wards iconic equaliser (on aggregate) and Stephen Darby with the winning penalty. Lose the final against Millwall with Charlie Austins bobble being the crucial moment.

1979 - 2-1 away win against Brentford in May 1979 with goals from Alan Mayes and Ian Miller to continue our hope of promotion from Division 3. I will never forget the scenes in the away end from the hordes of Town fans when Mayes scored. Lost our last 2 away games at Sheff Weds & Blackpool to end the dream and we ultimately finish 5th.

2015 - Still probably the most bizarre match I've ever witnessed. The 5-5 play off semi-final against Sheffield United. Followed by the 0-4 loss against Preston in the final, one of my worst ever experiences as a Swindon fan.

2013 - under Di Canio we score 14 goals conceding none in 3 successive homes games against Tranmere, Portsmouth & Carlisle and we are on course for successive promotions. All went wrong when Andrew Black pulled his funding, Di Canio left and we lose on pens to Brentford in the play off semi-finals.

David Mitchell woz robbed.

(Clem Morfuni was not)

28th May 1990 Play off final Swindon 1 Sunderland 0. We won 1-0 when it could be 4 or 5. 10 days later the ultimate heartbreak.

1. Locked in DRS crapper
2. Stuck on top of TE fence against Plymouth
3. 2023/24 season
4. Wearing shorts in the Shrivvy toilets
5. The robinettes

My 5 worst experiences at the CG

1. Spacey
2. Yeovil Red
3. Reg
4. Me
5/6/7 Bangkok, JayOH, the rest of you etc.

Behind the bog wall in the good old days of being in the TE
Ricky Porter wielding a baseball bat at Burnley fans
A chance hook up with a bunch of Blackburn fans and having a brilliant pre match session
Millwall in the DRS
‘That’ Wrexham football special

A top 5 crooks list would be a tough one to choose

Cant believe I stalked you around the Vic to not at least get an honourable mention smh

I should have shopped you in to Ben Lambert when he asked me if I knew who 'stormed the boardroom' :)

Actually, not sure I've ever really properly met you. I'll let you off.

1. Jerel Ifil
2. Luc Nijholt
3. Jack Stephens
4. Louis Reed
5. Frazer Blake-Tracy

Top five STFC number 5s. Only from the allocated shirt numbers era, so Prem season and then 1999 onwards, according to Mr. Banyard. Will Wright has every chance of breaking into the list if he plays two seasons.

And worst 5 for my own amusement

1. Jamie Slabber (extra points for giving a forward #5)
2. Vincent Pericard (see above)
3. Anton Rogers
4. Chris Robertson
5. Jonathan Grounds

Top 5 hall of shame.

Keepers
1. Matěj Kovář
2. Nicky Hammond
3. Alistair Sperring
4. Tony Warner
5. Paul Heald

Defenders
1. David Peach
2. Jason Drysdale
3. Mark Robinson
4. Kim Hieselberg
5. John Buttigieg

Midfielders
1. David Duke
2. Neil Webb
3. Roy Greenwood
4. Adrian Bakalli
5. Leigh Collins

Attackers
1. Mark McCammon
2. Shaun Close
3. Terry Gibson
4. Ben Hutchinson
5. Fola Onionbhaji

Biggest cup wins

West Ham
Arsenal
Roma
Arsenal
B
I
G

G
A
P

Wigan

Worst Cup Shocks

Tooting and Mitcham
These days they are no longer "shocks".

Loving these

For me its
1. Aldershot H
2. Stevenage H
3. Histon A
4. Dagenham H
5. Tooting A

Juventus? Napoli?

I enjoyed the di Canio win at Stoke and the semi final, home leg v Burnley.

Hard to beat the Arsenal 4-3 for pure excitement, though. Appreciated it more than the 14 year old at Wembley.

best shirts

85/86 away
95/96 away
97/98 away
91/92 away
12-13 away

Napoli being a Final and a dramatic one at that.  Yes!

But few of us will have seen that.  And I wanted to get the "Big Gap" in and also "Wigan" so that the list wasn't exclusive to posters in their 90s.

Stoke and Burnley must have been great.  Wasn't there sadly  :no:

Was there for Stoke. That was fun.

I will go 5 aside team. Best players i have seen in a town shirt, not my actual 5 favourite players

1)Digby
2)Nestor Lorenzo
3)Hoddle
4)Hazard
5)Fjortoft

That was harder than i thought, a best 11 would be difficult

5 worst managers
Malpas
Sheridan
Morris
Hart
Brown

5 Best managers
Hoddle
Macari
D Williams
Ardilles
Di Canio

And to think 3 of those were in a row - Macari, Ardilles and Hoddle. What a great time to be a fan and what a shitshow since.

Nah, not having a top 5 worst managers with out Kennedy in it…

Todd has to be in the conversation too

100% agree. Kennedy most deluded manager of all time. Got far too much allowance for personal matters. IIRC Di Canio lost both parents in short space of time and took the week end off!!

Agree on Kennedy.

Going back, my pick would have included Dave MacKay but even he has been well and truly eclipsed.

For best managers, it would be hard to exclude Bert Head who led us to the 2nd tier for the first time with his "Babes".

Well done, Adje, on starting this thread.  Most fun I've had for a few years now as a Town fan.

Best "5 come-backs"

Sheff Wed 2-0 to 3-2 and Coventry 1-0 to 2-1 with 2 goals in the last 5 mins spring to mind. Was there a Scunthorpe game where we were 2-0 down at half time and won 5-2 against 9 men too?

None better than the 6-4 win at Birmingham under Hoddle when we were 4-1 down IIRC?

Also Beamish who was as bad as any IMO.

In fairness there will be a fair number of people who won’t have been born or remember Beamish on this forum.

None of the above applies for Kennedy though.

That is true.

From recent times I recall 3-1 down to Crewe under Flitcroft? to win 4-3. Elsnik grabbed a couple.

Surprised nobody has mentioned Birmingham 4 Swindon 6

Literally 4 posts above this post mate!

The 69ers (again)

Leading 1-0 nearly all game and Wembley-bound until Burnley equalised with 30 secs to go.

20 seconds into extra time (less than 60 secs. play) and the Tier 1 side had turned it round at 2-1 and brave Town were going home. But they fought back to win 3-2.  

Storming away after Arsenal's late equaliser in normal time at Wembley was almost "routine".

Top 5 French players

Philippe Le God Cuervo
Freddie Darras (RIP)
Sofienne Zabooooob
Vince Pericard*
Danny N'Guessan

* surely there's been better for a Top 5 - Kerouche's on Fire may have been a dual national but chose to play for Algeria.

The full match is available on townenders.com for the Sheff Wed game. Nice to watch that 15 minute spell back in full! Seeing a full TE reminds me how much the atmosphere has declined since those days.

Top 5 Norn Iron international caps at Swindon

Trevor Anderson
Bryan Hamilton
Jimmy Quinn
Kevin Horlock
Norman Uprichard

I liked Fabian Robert. Tricky player and a bit of a terrier if I recall

5 Best and Worst away pubs

The Strawberry at Newcastle was brilliant before ‘that’ 5-0 cup game

Can’t remember the name of the 4-6 Birmingham pub - the crappiest, dirtiest pub I’ve ever been in. Still, probably, the better option than the Zulu pub we went in beforehand!

The Mersey Clipper before the Tranmere PO semi - great stuff in there

Most London away pubs - The Pride of Paddington packed full of Town fans was always good

The White Horse(?) stripper pub at Wycombe

Good call.

I'd been scratching my head to recall a Fre winger.

But had floundered on the Fre sounding Etienne Essajas who was in fact Dutch and also Lander Gabilondo who was Spanish Basque.

Miguel Comminges was good for a bit.

The site of the very first UK live performance by the Kings of Leon.
Sadly, no longer trading.

Sending the troops in to deal with problems gave a whole new meaning to the term Snatch Squad...

Some quality there.

Only know the name of Uprichard - not too sure why.

Alan MacDonald would be another NI name to throw in.

Best away games

Arsenal away league cup 1979
Swansea away Boxing Day 1978
Charlton away play offs 2010
Tranmere away play offs 1993
Gillingham away play off final replay Selhurst’s park 1987

Sod it 6😁 Mansfield away in 1986

Top 5 Players who could have been legendary and had much better, relative careers had they not been heavily injured and subsequently suffered with PITCH {Post Injury Traumatic Confidence Hoo-ha}:

Peter Brezovan
Jordan Lyden
Simon Ferry^
Louis Tomlinson
Sam Parkin^

^Both these likely attain some form of legendary status but their careers stagnated or dipped after leaving Town - despite much more promise. Plagued with ongoing injuries and for these two, they seemingly had ankles like peanut brittle post Town

Louis Tomlinson did pretty well with One Direction I thought!

Personally think Simon Ferry maximised his potential if anything. Truthfully he was a fairly limited player, but he worked hard and was able to play the box to box role well.

I don't seem to remember thinking 'what if' with him if it wasn't for injuries. Perhaps he'd of had a longer career in league one but certainly no more than that. I may be remembering wrong!

Re Ferry, if you look back at his career it would appear that Di Canio really was the only manager who could get the best out of him. Over 100 games for us but after that, his career never really went anywhere.

As stated, he was a fairly limited player but PDC seemed to be able to get whatever talent he had out of him. Ferry would have been a 'challenging' player to have, the class clown if you like. When you hear his stories, it's amazing PDC didn't kill him, let alone get so much out of him on the pitch!

In no particular order - reseve team legends

Shaun Close - goalscoring machine
Paul Hubt
Nicky Hammond
Harry Agombar
Ibrahim Ariku

Top 5 loanees
1 Eoin Doyle
2 Michael Carrick
3 James Milner
4 Matt Ritchie
5 Jimmy Davis

PdC may have his flaws but, he worked wonders with some of our squad.

The trouble was, his character also ruined players for us- Leon Clarke?

Yeah.Wes Fods?

He may have soured his relationship with Wes for a while but, I dont think he ruined him for us. Unless I'm remembering things differently, Wes recovered from getting subbed off early doors and turned into one of our best keepers ever.

Top 5 keepers........?

Sabiiiiiiin!

Keepers
Not necessarily playing in successful sides, but just what I remember them doing;
1. Wes Foderingham
2. Steven Benda
3. Jimmy Allan
4. Fraser Digby
5. Jim Barron

Top 5 STFC players who I have no recollection of / wouldn't know if they walked past me in the street...to be fair, this list could have been 100+ names long...

1.Jon Beswetherick
2. Ahmed Abdullah
3. Jake Kean
4. Sidy Sanokho
5. Petr Mikolanda

Best face fuzz

Paul Bodin
Brian Kilcline
Chris Kamara
Dave Mitchell
John Gorman

'I fought the law and the law won' top 5...
Terry Fenwick
Niall Ranger
Dion Donohue
Moses Ashikodi
Frank McAvennie

Surprised you missed out Kammy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BL6WNfpOXk

Of course! I knew I'd miss an obvious one...

Now do a boardroom one :D

Dirtiest STFC players

Sol Davis
Brian Williams
Steve Foley
Steve McMahon
Jon Gittens

Lick my Arse Orifice you cant possibly have that without having both Lee Collins and Darren Bullock in it!

I did forget Bullock, could probably do a starting eleven😁

Top 5 cult heroes
1 Ray McHale
2 Chalky White
3 Chris Kamara
4 Sammy Parkin
5 Steve Jenkins

Yeah bullock number 1 for me but fuck Sol Davis had a problem, didn't he?

I think he has/had a mental illness TBH.

Williams was a respected thug known as the “animal” 😁

Top 5 Absolute Clowns/Morons/Retarded^ Fuckwits

Jed Ged MacCroararyy McCroaaarrryyy
Sheridactyl
Anthony ''I don't know'' Fuck Hall
Callum ''Entrepreneur'' Rice
Quaver ''Not connected'' Austin^^

Sadly, this list is non-exhaustive and we could add many more. Including several from the McRory era onwards  :cry:

^When I use this word, not to offend anyone but I'm using it the same context that Michael Scott uses it.

^^Obviously this guy has absolutely zero affiliation with Town at all and is in no way involved with the clabb. Just to be clear.

LMc?  :hmmm:

6. Jonny Williams

Chortle :D

They were in a class of their own.  Reportedly, McMahon paid £400,000 for Bullock.

I really liked Davis.  Good full back.

Reminded me of Stuart Pearce😁

I think that was his bail price.

What a waste of money