Swindon Town are a team generally disliked by Dons fans, and in honesty I don’t think they have much time for us either, and in truth I can’t say as I really know why there is bit of history there somewhere, perhaps thinking about it, it stems from when we were fighting tooth and nail with them to get promoted to the Championship, but it could be further back than that, who knows.
The last time we played the Robins was in February 2019 at SMK where we suffered a 3-2 defeat which at the time was a massive blow in out attempt to get out of League 2 in our first season under the leadership of Paul Tisdale.
In the run up to the festive period we looked to be in a good place for an automatic promotion berth, but two wins in the last ten games saw us slide outside the playoff places. Swindon went 1-0 up in the first half and Jake Hesketh (Pictured Above) levelled on the hour but within 20 seconds of the restart the Robins were back in front. A subsequent penalty compounded our troubles and an Agard 88th minute goal proved to be nothing more than a consolation.
On my research for this game, I note we will be bumping into Swindon boss John Sheridan yet again, and that’s into double figures by now, but I also discovered a strange fact on him that Swindon are the 4th team he has managed in 2020, that’s got to be unique surely as I can’t think that has ever happened before……unless you know otherwise.
One other thing to note is out of the 9 home games, Swindon have failed to score on 5 occasions.
So, let’s take a look at the Robins…. now how does that song go.
The stats below do not include the Boxing Day fixtures.
THE STORY SO FAR
Swindon find themselves in 22nd position with a League record of PLAYED 19, WON 5, DRAWN 2, LOST 12, GF 22 & GA 35, and 16 POINTS.
CURRENT FORM – LWLLLLD
LEAGUE HOME RESULTS 2020/21
Swindon 2 Charlton 2
Swindon 0 Fleetwood 1
Swindon 0 Lincoln 1
Swindon 1 Bristol Rovers 0
Swindon 0 Accrington 3
Swindon 0 Sunderland 2
Swindon 0 AFCW 1
Swindon 4 Burton 2
Swindon 3 Rochdale 1
That’s a HOME record of PLAYED 9, WON 3, DRAWN 1, LOST 5, GF 10 & GA 13.
GROUND – The County Ground (15,728)
NICKNAME – The Robins
YEAR OF FORMATION – 1879
THE MANAGER – John Joseph Sheridan aged 56 and born in Stretford, Manchester. We have bumped into Mr Sheridan on numerous occasions over the years, and if my maths is correct its well into double figures.
As a midfielder he began his days at Man City on the youth books in 1981 although he never made his pro debut at City and had to wait a full season before moving to Leeds United to get his career rolling. He also had spells at Notts Forest, Sheff Wednesday, Birmingham City, Bolton, Doncaster Rovers and finally Oldham Athletic. He played 733 domestic games scoring 103 goals and also represented the Republic of Ireland on 37 occasions scoring 5 goals.
As a manger he has been a bit of a journeyman and has spent most of his time in League 1, the full list is Oldham Athletic, Chesterfield, Plymouth Argyle, Newport County, Oldham again, Notts County, Oldham for the third time, Fleetwood Town, Carlisle United, Waterford and Wigan Athletic.
Sheridan took over at Swindon on November 13th on a 1-year contract and remarkably this is Sheridan’s 4th team managed in 2020.
His lifetime stats add up to GAMES 684, WON 253, DRAWN 173, LOST 258 giving him a WIN RATIO of 37%.
SWINDON MASCOT
Rocking Robin, a Robin who rocks, well at least in his own world.
PLAYED FOR BOTH
Sol Davis, Gareth Edds, Ryan Harley, Albert Jarrett, Jon-Paul McGovern, Stuart Moore, Anthony McNamee, Paul Mitchell, Alan Navarro, Sean O’Hanlon, David Partridge and Alex Revell were the only ones I could find.
FORMER PLAYERS AND MANAGERS
Mark Cooper, Mike Sumerbee, Don Rodgers, Chris Kamara, Paul Rideout, Colin Calderwood, Frazer Digby, John Moncur, Dave Mackay, Lou Macari, Ossie Ardiles, Glen Hoddle, John Gorman, Steve McMahon, Jimmy Quinn, Roy Evans, Denis Wise, Danny Wilson, Paul Sturrock, Paul Hart and Paolo Di Canio to name a few.
CELEBRITY FAN
Jamie Cullum (Singer Songwriter).
SHOOTERS BOOTS – Top Guns for the Robins are Tyler Smith & Brett Pitman with 4 goals.
CURRENT MATCH ODDS – Swindon 5/2 Draw 5/2 MK Dons 11/9
LAST TIME ROUND – 9th Feb 2019 – MK Dons 2 Swindon 3
Team – Nicholls, Martin, Walsh, Cargill, Watson, Gilbey, Hesketh (Walker), Houghton (Wheeler), Lewington, Aneke, Agard.
Unused Subs – Baudry, Cisse, McGrandles, Moore, Harley.
Goals – Doughty 34’, Hesketh 60’, Anderson 60’, Doughty 73’, Agard 88’.
Referee – Chris Sarginson (3 Yellows)
Attendance – 7,864
HEAD 2 HEAD
This will be our 24th meeting with our record standing at WON 10, DRAWN 6, LOST 7.
2018/19 – MK Dons 2 Swindon 3 (Hesketh, Agard)
2018/19 – Swindon 1 MK Dons 1 (Walsh)
2016/17 – Swindon 1 MK Dons 1 (Agard)
2016/17 – MK Dons 3 Swindon 2 (Maynard, Agard 2)
2014/15 – Swindon 0 MK Dons 3 (Powell, Grigg 2)
2014/15 – MK Dons 2 Swindon 1 (Alli, Kay)
2013/14 – Swindon 1 MK Dons 2 (Kay, G Baldock)
2013/14 – MK Dons 1 Swindon 1 (Bamford)
2012/13 – MK Dons 2 Swindon 0 (Doumbe, Lowe)
2012/13 – Swindon 1 MK Dons 0
2010/11 – Swindon 0 MK Dons 1 (O’Hanlon)
2010/11 – MK Dons 2 Swindon 1 (S Baldock 2)
2009/10 – Swindon 0 MK Dons 0
2009/10 – MK Dons 2 Swindon 1 (Wilbraham, Tunnicliffe)
2008/09 – Swindon 1 MK Dons 1 (Wilbraham)
2008/09 – MK Dons 1 Swindon 2 (Stirling)
2006/07 – Swindon 2 MK Dons 1 (McGovern)
2006/07 – MK Dons 0 Swindon 1
2005/06 – Swindon 0 MK Dons 1 (Platt)
2005/06 – MK Dons 3 Swindon 1 (Kamara, Edds, McLeod)
2004/05 – Swindon 2 MK Dons 1 (Small)
2004/05 – MK Dons 1 Swindon 1 (Smart)
