Swindon Town

Also written as Swindon.

The club

Swindon Town were founded in 1879 and play at the County Ground in Swindon, Wiltshire, now formally the Nigel Eady County Ground, which holds 15,728. They are the Robins and play in red and white, with sky blue and white as the change colours.

Recent seasons

Swindon won League Two in 2019/20 with 69 points on the points-per-game calculation that ended the curtailed season, then went straight back down, finishing 23rd in League One in 2020/21 with 43 points. They have been a fourth-tier club for six seasons since. They were sixth in 2021/22 with 77 points and lost in the play-offs, tenth in 2022/23 with 61, 19th in 2023/24 with 54, and 12th in 2024/25 with 63. The 2025/26 season was much the strongest of the run: ninth with 75 points from 46 games, 22 wins, nine draws and 15 defeats, 70 goals scored and 59 conceded, but 75 points was not enough for a play-off place in a division where sixth-placed Chesterfield had 79 and seventh-placed Grimsby Town 78. Aaron Drinan scored 22 league goals and 28 in all competitions.

Honours and landmarks

The League Cup of 1969 is the club's one major trophy, won as a Third Division side with a 3-1 win over Arsenal at Wembley. They were Fourth Division champions in 1985/86 with 102 points from 46 games, Second Division champions in 1995/96, and League Two champions in 2011/12 and 2019/20. They won the Third Division play-offs in 1987 and the First Division play-offs in 1993, which took them into the inaugural Premier League.

Two episodes define the modern club. In 1990 Swindon won the Second Division play-offs and were then charged with 36 breaches of league rules over illegal payments; promotion was withdrawn, and the sanction was reduced on appeal. In 1993/94 they finally reached the top flight, via the play-offs, and were relegated with five wins all season.

Record attendance is 32,000 against Arsenal in an FA Cup third round replay on 15 January 1972. John Trollope holds the appearance record with 889 games between 1960 and 1980, a figure that includes 770 league matches and stood as an English league record for one club for decades. Harry Morris is the leading scorer with 229 goals in 279 games, including 48 in 1926/27. Record fee paid is £800,000 to West Ham United for Joey Beauchamp in August 1994; record fee received is £4,000,000 from Queens Park Rangers for Ben Gladwin and Massimo Luongo in May 2015.

Notable scorelines

Record victory: 10-1 away at Farnham United Breweries in the FA Cup on 28 November 1925. Record defeat: 1-10 away at Manchester City in the FA Cup on 25 January 1930. A 9-1 win over Luton Town in 1920, in the club's first Football League season, is also on record.

Head-to-head notes

Swindon do not publish all-time head-to-head records and none was established for any 2026/27 opponent. The EFL Cup first round is away at Cardiff City, promoted from League One as runners-up in 2025/26 with 91 points, a two-division gap. The league opens away at Northampton Town, who were relegated from League One in 2025/26 in bottom place with 35 points and now drop into League Two with Swindon. Swindon have already played one of this season's opponents in pre-season, beating Leyton Orient 2-1 on 28 July; Orient finished 20th in League One and stayed up, so that will not recur in the league.

Right now (2026/27)

Ian Holloway has been manager since 25 October 2024 and signed a contract to June 2028 in March 2025 after winning League Two Manager of the Month in January 2025. As of 2 May 2026 his record at the club was 92 games, 44 wins, 21 draws, 27 defeats.

Recruitment has been modest and concentrated on 1 July. Right-back Mitch Clark joined on a free transfer from Port Vale, centre-back Stephan Negru from Oxford United for an undisclosed fee, and central midfielder Matty Virtue from Fleetwood Town for an undisclosed fee, all on that day. Centre-back James Debayo arrived on loan from Hull City on 2 July for the season.

Two departures are recorded. Midfielder Darren Oldaker joined Southend United for an undisclosed fee on 18 June, and forward Jake Tabor went to Hemel Hempstead Town on 24 July.

Pre-season took in six matches. Swindon won 4-0 at Swindon Supermarine on 4 July and 1-0 at Costa City on 10 July, lost 1-0 at Chippenham Town on 14 July, lost 5-1 at Crystal Palace on 18 July, lost 3-1 at home to Bristol City on 25 July and beat Leyton Orient 2-1 at the County Ground on 28 July.

The season starts with the EFL Cup first round away at Cardiff City on 8 August 2026. The League Two campaign opens away at Northampton Town on Saturday 15 August 2026 at 3pm.

Sources

Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.