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Dave Manning's avatar

Feels like this season might be THE season, Rob. The squad, especially the defence, appears to be a mess. Sad times.

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Rob Francis's avatar

Oh yeah we’re done for. Can’t defend set pieces, give away stupid goals, run around like headless chickens. Morecambe were a poor team on Saturday, but we were worse. Winter is coming.

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Martin Black's avatar

There was a decent Swindon Town FC fanzine called 'Hit The Bar' that I used to enjoy reading every now and again, back in the days of football fanzines, wish I still had all mine.

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Rob Francis's avatar

I must confess I don’t know Hit The Bar! We used to have a decent fanzine culture though, “Bring The Noise” and “The 69er” (named after the year we won the cup, of course) were both great. All gone now though, which is really sad.

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Rachel Pearce's avatar

When I was growing up in Newbury in the 1970s, Swindon was the height of sophistication, being home to the unbelievably exotic Oasis leisure centre. Imagine, an indoor swimming pool! With a wave machine and slides! And a concert hall! I never went there; it was a mythical place to me. My friends regaled me with tales of their visits. I wonder what Priestley would have made of Newbury.

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Rob Francis's avatar

Ha, well it’s not often Swindon and sophistication are mentioned in the same sentence! I suppose everywhere is bigger than somewhere. I loved the Oasis as a kid - it’s closed now, I think, though people are trying to save it. Swindon suffers from various trends which have been crushing smaller towns for years; ease of transport (Bristol and London aren’t far), migration to cities, lack of investment. I wondered whether increased WFH post-covid might reverse some of the decline, though I’ve not seen much evidence of that. Sadly Priestley didn’t visit Newbury on his travels! Though I imagine he’d have liked strolling along the canal.

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