Swindon away preview for Saturday

[Sweden Stag]

Out of all the cups now following the exit of the EFL Trophy at Burton last Tuesday. And that now means that the Stags now fully can concentrate on League action, still being unbeaten in League Two after seventeen games. But now, the Stags face a tricky game at Swindon, where they last season broke a hoodoo by winning there for the first time since late on in the 1976-77 third level Championship campaign.

Breaking hoodoos on the road has been a pattern for the Stags this year. Not only Swindon last season, but this season already at Accrington, Harrogate and most recently Salford, respectively. And the last three Stags away games have been victorious. Two 4-1 routs inflicted on Notts County and Harrogate meant that the Stags had scored four goals or more in successive away games for the first time since 1966, when Doncaster were beaten 6-4 on November 15, 1966 and Workington to a 4-2 scoreline on December 10, 1966 in the third tier.

Currently, the Stags are unbeaten in 14 successive away fixtures and have scored in all of those. The record is fifteen spread over two seasons, starting with a 1-1 draw at Stevenage on April 10, 2018 and ending with a 1-0 victory at Grimsby on New Year’s Day 2019, six wins and nine draws, one of those a goal-less draw at Swindon in October 2018. The current sequence is of seven wins and seven draws. Back in 1962-63, the Stags scored in every game on the road bar two, netted in their first 18 away games then and hit 47 goals on the road. In 1974-75, the Stags scored in all away fixtures bar two, and those two out of four goal-less draws then, and those four games were the only ones in which the Stags failed to score in the League.

Scoring has not been the problem for Swindon Town this season. On 36 occasions have they hit the net and have been involved in some crazy games this term. Among those are a 5-5 draw at Wrexham and a 4-7 home FA Cup first round exit at the hands of Aldershot Town recently. In that game, Swindon found themselves 7-0 down at one stage before netting a brace late on. In the League Two, Swindon have routed Crawley to a 6-0 scoreline but lost their latest home game 2-4 to Stockport.

While the Stags now have five consecutive victories in League Two, Swindon have not won in six and have lost six out of their last nine League Two fixtures, but drew 1-1 at Harrogate last weekend.

Two seasons ago at Swindon, the Stags were robbed, having had a good goal disallowed. And at Swindon, the Stags have now won there on four occasions. The first one was in 1937-38. Before last season, the other ones were in consecutive seasons, 1975-76 and 1976-77 respectively in the old third division. See more below.

Swindon Town are also the side the Stags faced in their first-ever League fixture way back in 1931 (see more below).

And by the time of the home preview in 2018-19, history was made as the then Stags manager, David Flitcroft, faced two of his former clubs in two consecutive home fixtures. Flitcroft, who managed against Bury on Boxing Day 2018 and three days later, he faced Swindon Town, the club he bossed before taking over the Stags following the departure of Steve Evans (now at Stevenage). And incidentally enough, the last Stags League Two defeat under Steve Evans was inflicted by David Flitcroft’s Swindon to the only goal of the game on February 10, 2018. In that fixture, the 2018-19 Stags loanee Timi Elšnik played for Swindon as well as Matt Preston in what was to be his final Swindon game. While the Bury game was one of that season’s best ones, the Swindon home game ended in a dull goal-less draw. Just two months earlier, the sides played out a goal-less draw at Swindon in a game marred by poor refereeing and a horrendous red card to Will Atkinson, then at Stags.

And out of the Stags players appearing at County Ground in front of the previewer way back in April 2017, one was still around in 2021-22: Alex John-Baptiste then for Bolton, while one then Swindon player, Andrew Nicholas, was later to play 14 National League games for the Stags during the 2009-10 campaign before leaving for Barrow. Another one then starting for Swindon, later to play for the Stags that same 2009-10 season, was Blair Sturrock. From the then starting Swindon line-up, Lukas Jutkiewicz is still playing Championship football for Birmingham and have since 2016 played almost 300 Championship games for Brum.. Ex-Stag Lee Peacock starred for Swindon in front of the previewer way back in April 2007.

And Swindon were the first team to play the Stags in a league fixture and also the first one to be beaten by them. This happened in the Stags' inaugural league game in the old division 3 (S) on August 29, 1931, when 12232 saw the Stags win 3-2 with Joe Readman netting the Stags' historic first League goal and Harry Broome the other two.

The Stags' line up then, courtesy of the centenary book, was as follows: Wilson, Clifford, England, Wake, Davis, Blackburn, Gilhespy, Readman, Johnson, Broome, Baxter, while the Swindon team included a former Stag named Fred Laycock.

The sides did not meet again until the 1937-38 season when the Stags were transferred back into the Southern section after a couple of seasons up north due to the relegation of Bradford City and Doncaster Rovers.

Again, the Stags won at Field Mill, this time around to the tune of 2-0 on October 23, 1937, when Crawshaw scored one of his 25 league goals that season, Sams netting his first of only two league goals in his short Stags career.

Thence, the Stags had to wait 31 years and the 1968-69 FA Cup season for the next home win against Swindon, then flying high in the old Third Division, a few months later winning the League Cup as well as promotion. But on November 23, 1968, Dudley Roberts and Bob Ledger scored in a 2-0 victory in front of 5477, thus ending a miserable run with one point from five previous league games. Typically enough, the Stags also beat other promotion hopefuls as Watford, Luton and early pace-setters Bournemouth at Field Mill in the League that term which also was the Stags’ best-ever in the FA Cup. The 2-0 victory also ended a dreadful decade against Swindon at home as three consecutive home games were lost until a 2-2 draw on November 4, 1967, ending a run of six consecutive Stags league defeats.

On October 22, 1938, the Stags won at Swindon for the very first time thanks to strikes from Somerfield and Wilson to a 2-1 scoreline. From then on, the Stags had to wait 38 year for their next victory at Swindon (see more below).

In the 1970's, the sides also clashed. In the 1975-76 season, the Stags won both games, the 2-0 on March 27, 1976, scorers Laverick and former Swindon player Ray Clarke, being the fourth of seven straight away wins, and in 1976-77, a 1-0 win at Swindon, scorer Colin Foster on April 30, 1977, all but secured Stags promotion. One Swindon player then, Dave Syrett, went on to be the Stags' then record signing a few months later on the eve of the 1977-78 Second Division season.

And in the 1985-86 campaign, the sides were promoted together from the basement. While Swindon clinched promotion thanks to a 1-1 draw at Field Mill on April 19, 1986, the Stags clinched theirs thanks to a 4-0 home mauling of Hartlepool a few days later.

The sides also met in the 2002-03 season when both sides won their home game to a 2-1 scoreline. More details on these games are featured in the Match Centre. And more on some other games between the sides, including the Stags' inauguaral league game, are featured in the Vintage Stags section.

The second latest Stags’ home victory against Swindon was secured in December 2006 thanks to first-half strikes from Richie Barker and Simon Brown, Barker’s strike coming as early as in the third minute. More on that game also in the Match Centre.

Played for both sides: Nicky Ajose, Calvin Andrew, Shayne Bradley, Frank Burrows, Colin Calderwood, Dave Caldwell, Michael Carter, Ray Clarke, Giles Coke, Dion Donohue (one EFL Cup game for Stags), Ted Dransfield, Timi Elšnik (pronounced ”Elshnik”), Fred Fisher, Aden Flint, Kieron Freeman, Jimmy Gauld, Kellan Gordon, Michael Graham, Darius Henderson, Arthur Hetherington, Jake Kean, Harry Keeling, Brian Kilcline, Fred Laycock, Martin Ling (later Swindon manager), Kenneth Mellor, Rollin Menayese, Eddie Munnings, Andrew Nicholas, Iffy Onoura (later Swindon manager), Lee Peacock, Matt Preston, Louis Reed, Jamie Sendles-White, Alan Sheehan, Blair Sturrock, Dave Syrett, Adam Willis.

Managed both sides: David Flitcroft, Danny Williams (had two spells at Swindon, left the Stags for his second spell at Swindon in 1974), Andy King (managed Swindon until early on in the 2005-06 season but was in charge of the Stags when Leeds were KO’ed in the league cup in 1994-95).

Some other famous names have managed Swindon. To name but a few: Ossie Ardiles, Dave Mackay and Glenn Hoddle. Also the FL record appearance holder for one club, John Trollope (770 games between 1960 and 1980, facing the Stags on a few occasions), was Swindon manager for a few years and bossed against the Stags when Swindon beat the Stags 4-0 at home on October 23, 1982. Another player (apart from Martin Ling noted above) with former Stags pedigree who has managed Swindon is Iffy Onoura, who were unable to prevent relegation in 2005-06. In fact, Onoura succeeded Andy King in the Swindon hot seat.

Home stats: P 25, W 8, D 11, L 6, GF 33, GA 34
Away stats: P 26, W 4, D 4, L 18, GF 25, GA 53

1931-32 3-2 1931-08-29 2-5 1932-01-02 Div 3 (S)
1937-38 2-0 1937-10-23 3-3 1938-03-05 Div 3 (S)
1938-39 1-1 1939-02-25 2-1 1938-10-22 Div 3 (S)
1946-47 1-1 1946-10-26 1-6 1947-03-01 Div 3 (S)
1958-59 0-0 1959-04-13 1-2 1959-04-22 Div 3 (old)
1959-60 1-2 1960-03-28 1-2 1960-04-23 Div 3 (old)
1965-66 1-5 1966-04-16 2-6 1965-11-20 Div 3 (old)
1966-67 1-3 1967-04-24 1-3 1967-04-11 Div 3 (old)
1967-68 2-2 1967-11-04 1-1 1968-03-30 Div 3 (old)
1968-69 2-0 1968-11-23 0-1 1969-04-22 Div 3 (old)
1975-76 3-1 1975-12-06 2-0 1976-03-27 Div 3 (old)
1976-77 1-1 1976-11-27 1-0 1977-04-30 Div 3 (old)
1978-79 0-1 1978-11-11 0-1 1978-09-02 Div 3 (old)
1979-80 1-1 1979-11-10 1-2 1980-03-22 Div 3 (old)
1982-83 1-0 1983-03-05 0-4 1982-10-23 Div 4 (old)
1983-84 2-2 1983-11-26 1-1 1984-04-29 Div 4 (old)
1984-85 0-0 1984-09-29 0-1 1985-02-02 Div 4 (old)
1985-86 1-1 1986-04-19 1-2 1985-11-23 Div 4 (old) 
1986-87 0-0 1986-11-08 0-3 1987-04-03 Div 3 (old)
2002-03 2-1 2003-03-15 1-2 2002-10-26 Div 2
2006-07 2-0 2006-12-05 0-2 2007-04-21 League Two
2017-18 1-3 2017-10-14 0-1 2018-02-10 League Two
2018-19 0-0 2018-12-29 0-0 2018-10-20 League Two
2019-20 home not played 0-1 2019-11-23 League Two
2021-22 3-2 2022-01-11 0-1 2021-08-28 League Two
2022-23 2-5 2022-10-29 4-2 2023-04-07 League Two

Expect a good test on Saturday. Come on Mansfield!