Marked for Sergio Rodríguez
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 May 2027
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The dugout17 May 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Swindon Town may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Ryan McAidoo, 18, steals the show — 8.44
Marked 8.44 at 18, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad17 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Swindon Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 May 2027
Fleetwood Town left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad17 May 2027
Romelle Donovan falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match15 May 2027
No clean sheets in sight for Swindon Town
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
The dugout17 May 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Mark McGuinness was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.25. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Feb 2027
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Market1 Feb 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 8 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Swindon Town until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market1 Feb 2027
The fee is $530.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Bolton Wanderers drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad1 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Swindon Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Bruno Pires gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Bruno Pires has just signed for Swindon Town, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Romelle Donovan falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Swindon Town asked and Brighton said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Nov 2026
0‑4 against Barnet, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market30 Nov 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Swindon Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match28 Nov 2026
Swindon Town are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad30 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Swindon Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑4 Robert White left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Kaelan Majekodunmi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Beaten 4 times, 4 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Oct 2026
Ryan Tafazolli damages knee ligaments — 55 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 55 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alfie Brooks is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match10 Oct 2026
Newport County left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Sergio Rodríguez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
James Scanlon falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Robert White left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Ollie Clarke
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Connor Ripley’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Swindon Town needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
63 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Swindon Town lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Francisco Souza Silva, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.63
A mark of 7.63 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ryan Tafazolli and Swindon Town agree another 1 years.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ryan Tafazolli and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match3 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad5 Oct 2026
James Scanlon falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Robert White to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
James Scanlon has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Swindon Town will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
James Ball gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.