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Swindon Town v Oldham Athletic - League One

The County Ground, Swindon

Saturday, 25 October 2008 15:00 K.O.

On these away trips, Margaret and I try to make the most of local places to visit and quite often these are more memorable that the match itself. The day out to Swindon was destined to be one involving myths, legends, superstitions and music connections.

We made good time along the M42 and M40 to junction 9 and then via the A34 around Oxford and the A420. After Faringdon we took a detour through Uffington to the National Trust car park at the foot of White Horse Hill. Margaret’s ‘elevenses’ consisted of a coffee-flavoured ‘Coppa Oro con Meringhe’ from the Sammontana Gelati All’ Italiana ice cream van. The Thames Valley police were present on the car park in the form of two officers in a Range Rover. As Margaret bought her ice cream, the female police officer could not resist the offer of two complimentary cornets for her and her colleague - apparently a perk of the job for the long arm of the law with deeper pockets. I did not have a Gelati, because I have not dared to eat ice cream, ever since suffering from something sounding similar to Sammontana in 1961.

We climbed to the summit of the Hill, the highest point in Oxfordshire, to see the 360 feet x 126 feet White Horse, the oldest chalk-cut hill figure in Britain, reputed to be more than 3,000 years old. The wind was very strong and bitterly cold, reminiscent of ‘Ice Station Zebra’ (Boundary Park)..

Prior to two previous Latics victories in Swindon, Margaret and I had stood in the eye of the White Horse. Not that we are superstitious or believe all this good luck mumbo jumbo but, bearing in mind that today’s game was one which must be won to maintain the promotion push, we would only have blamed ourselves if we had lost, especially as our failure to visit the Horse last season had been followed by a 3-0 defeat.

From the summit there are spectacular views across the Vale as far as the Cotswolds. To our surprise, we found that the eye of the Horse contained a group of people, with their coat hoods over their heads and scarves over their faces. One of them was reading from a book and they appeared to be enacting a strange ritual, while speaking in foreign tongues.

Not to be put off by what was going on, we each stood in the eye in turn, and felt that we had done our bit to help towards securing a Latics victory.  We looked down on Dragon Hill, a low flat-topped mound situated in the valley below the White Horse. In legend it is the place where St George slew the dragon, its blood spilling on the hilltop and leaving forever a bare white patch where no grass can grow. Some suggest that the White Horse is a representation of St George's steed or even of the slain dragon itself.

On returning to the car park the Thames Valley Police were still present, but the Range Rover had been replaced with a saloon car, whose occupants seemed to be trying to decide which one should try to blag the ice cream cornets from Signore Sammontana.We returned to the A420 via Shrivenham, where we passed the barber shop named ‘Billy Shears’ - was this the “one and only” referred to on the Beatles’ ‘Sergeant Pepper’ album? The thoughts of all the history of White Horse Hill had left us with senses working overtime, which is the cue to mention that the image of the White Horse was also featured on Swindon band XTC’s ‘English Settlement’ album cover.

XTC co-founder guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and graphic artist Andy Partridge still lives in the town, and the band’s drummer and co-founder Terry Chambers is a fan of Swindon Town. The Club’s previous Chairman was ex-jockey Willie Carson, who grew up with, and played against, the Leeds United legend Billie Bremner and was an ardent follower of his local team, Stirling Albion. In fact, the earliest press picture of Willie is as a seven-year-old attending a meeting of Stirling fans protesting at the way the then board was running the club.

The TV comedy series ‘The Office’ contained many references to Swindon, as the town was home to a newly absorbed part of Wernham-Hogg's Slough office after significant downsizing. In spite of there being high employment in the town and plenty of money concentrated in the area, Swindon Town, like Latics, suffers from a shortage of support.

Willie Carson had said that the local area’s affluence might even be one of the problems. He reckoned that lots of potential fans in the area could afford to travel into London or up to the Midlands and beyond to watch the big Premiership clubs. If that theory is correct, the ‘credit crunch’ and downturn in the economy may work to the advantage of clubs like Swindon Town and Oldham Athletic. We live in hope!

Racing trainer Jenny Pitman is also a Swindon Town fan, but the club may create more local interest if it can attract as fans two local girls, former glamour model and television presenter Melinda Messenger, and actress and former pop singer Billie Piper, but as the latter had given birth a few days before the game, it was unlikely that she would have been present at this game, even though a precedent of breast-feeding in the Main Stand at Boundary Park had been created recently.

It had been announced two days before our visit that Swindon had become the first town in the UK to do away with fixed-point speed cameras. This came after a change to the way these cameras were funded - central Government receiving the cash from fines while Swindon Council had to pay for the upkeep of the cameras.

Also in 2007/08 seventy people had been killed on the streets of Swindon - proof that fixed-point speed cameras were not working to curb motorists' excessive speed. However, this did not mean speeding motorists could not be caught, as we were advised that Police would still be out and about with hand-held speed-measuring devices. Therefore I did my bit for road safety by keeping to the speed limit and being alert, especially when negotiating Swindon’s notorious Magic Roundabout.

This is actually not a roundabout but a gyratory, at the junction of five roads and it is the subject of the song English Roundabout on the XTC album referred to above. It combines two types of roundabout in one - the first, a series of the conventional, clockwise variety, and the second, a large centre one, sending traffic anti-clockwise. There have been 14 serious accidents and over 100 lesser ones recorded in 25 years, which is less than one would expect for such a busy junction, and most have involved cyclists and motorcyclists. Now there is a cycle lane running right round the outside of the roundabout, with pelican crossings.

It has been confusing and amusing people for over 30 years, and they say that any driver who successfully navigates it deserves a medal. So in celebration of the world's most famous roundabout, they produced the perfect item for anyone who has managed to get from one side to the other in one piece. You've seen it.... you've driven it.... now get the official 'I survived the Magic Roundabout’ T-shirt..

As worn by Swindon Town players Billy Paynter, Peter Brezovan and Anthony McNamee.

The sight of the direction sign to the Oasis Leisure Centre reminded me of what I believe to be an urban myth that Noel Gallagher, front-man of the rock band Oasis, chose the name of his band after visiting this Leisure Centre in 1993, while working as a roadie for Oldham band Inspiral Carpets which had been performing there. I prefer the story that Noel Gallagher chose the name of his band after hearing Inspiral Carpets band members Clint and Graham, mention their fellow Latics fans from a fertile area in a barren land, who had called themselves OASIS (Oldham Athletic Supporters In The South) . After eating our sandwiches in the car, we called in at the County Ground and I took the customary picture of the Flag, with the help of two volunteer Latics supporters.

Then we headed to the Tap & Barrel Irish pub on Manchester Road, to find that Alan (BigfinLatic) had beaten us to it for the second time in successive games. I was able to meet for the first time Josh (JSS Latic), a fellow Midland-based member of the Latics ‘Oh When The Blues’ message board, who kindly treated me to a pint.

Paul from Newport in South Wales was also present, which was another good omen, as he had not seen the team lose this season. Going into the game Latics set out to defend a proud record of having not lost back-to-back league games since September 2007. Also there had not been any defeats this season on a Saturday and, before leaving home, we had followed our ritual of playing the White Stripes’ ‘Elephant’ album in its entirety.

As I said before, not that we are superstitious, but why break the tried and tested chain of events when all is going well? And so on to the County Ground for the crucial match to get the team back on the promotion trail. I positioned the Flag prominently hanging from the upper level of our section of the Arkell’s (Brewery) Stand. The vast empty terrace at the unused end of the Stadium was brightened by the presence of a Latics flag, which I had never seen before.

We were hoping to sit at the back of the Stand, where the singers usually congregate and where the view of the far goal was unobstructed by a pillar. However, we were prohibited from sitting on the back two rows of seats and the steward explained that this was because:

(a) The CCTV cameras did not cover those rows; and

(b) It was too much hassle for the stewards to have to climb all the way up the steps to those rows.When I laughed at this explanation, he said that he had also laughed when it was explained at his briefing.

The pre-match entertainment consisted of the Swindon Town mascot, Rockin’ Robin gyrating to the rather inferior McFly version of the rock ’n’ roll classic after which he was named, and we were advised that the Robinettes dancing girls would not be gracing the pitch, as they were appearing elsewhere in a dance competition. I detected that the afternoon’s events had already started to go downhill. The game started very similar to Tuesday’s at Bristol Rovers.

Latics dominated the first twenty minutes, but many corners and several goal-scoring opportunities went begging . It came as no surprise when Swindon Town took the lead against the run of play in the 26th minute, when the ball was threaded through to Sean Morrison who side-footed it past keeper Mark Crossley. Then to add insult to injury Lee Hughes was supposed to be helping the defence, when he handled the ball needlessly from a corner, and from the resultant penalty Jack Smith put the Robins into a 2-0 lead after 34 minutes, which proved unassailable. The best chance of the game fell to Latics when Danny Whitaker burst clear of the Swindon defence five minutes before the break but, with only the keeper to beat, he shot high over the bar from ten yards.

The second half was very much a non-event as Swindon controlled the game and Latics made no impression,. It was the team’s worst performance of the season and the faithful Latics supporters were left with a wasted journey feeling long before the final whistle. After the game, Manager John Sheridan said he was a very angry man and he apologised to the travelling fans, as he would not accept that performance.

As British Summertime was coming to an end, it was a pity the clock could not have rewound an hour with the Latics players heeding the ‘fortune favours the brave’ message on that large flag pictured above. As we trudged back to the car, it dawned on me that the group of strange-looking people in the eye of the White Horse, who appeared to be enacting a strange ritual, while speaking in foreign tongues, must have been……………………………..Swindon Town supporters wishing good fortune on their team!