Most people receive a telegram from the Queen when they reach 100.
Dave Henery did better than that – he watched Swindon Town win away.
Software company director Dave chalked up his own personal century after seeing Town’s 1-0 victory at Morecambe on Good Friday.
It was the 100th club that he had that he had visited to watch Swindon – 43 years after first passing through the County Ground turnstiles for the first time.
Said father-of-two Dave, 56: “It was a good game to reach my 100. A hard fought away win. “It was great to be singing ‘oh what fun it is to see Swindon win away. ‘ Not only that but also ‘we are Swindon, we’re top of the league.’ “Of all the times I’ve seen the Town play away, I worked out that they’ve won less than a third of them – so it was really decent of the lads to do it today,” he said after the final whistle blew.
Former Churchfields school and Swindon College student Dave moved to Swindon from Liverpool when he was seven and saw Town for the first time when he was 13, at home to Rotherham in 1969.
Dave got the bug and even after moving away from Swindon he regularly hitched back to his parents’ house in the town to watch the lads.
At a match at Notts County during the Eighties, a friend asked him how many grounds had he seen the Robins play. “It was 20 odd but I thought ‘why not see them at as many as possible,” he said.
The aim was to eventually do “The 92” – watching Town play at all 92 clubs in the Football League.
Like a select band of other dedicated Town fans that have also notched up 100 clubs, Dave’s quest was greatly aided by Swindon’s year in the Premiership during the 1993/84 season.
This enabled them to watch their team mess with the big boys such as Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal after years of thrashing around in the lower divisions.
During his travels, Dave reckons that Old Trafford is probably the best stadium he has seen Swindon play. The worst: the Old Oxford and Doncaster grounds “where you could hardly see a thing.”
With Paolo De Canio’s red and white army marching purposefully towards promotion Dave is particularly looking forward to seeing Swindon play at Stevenage next season – currently the only ground in the Football League where the club have not played a competitive match.
* Have you seen Town play at 100 club grounds? If so email Barry Leighton giving details – including best and worst away grounds – at leightonbarry@ymail.com
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