The story behind the worst season in Swindon Town's history

Much like Sheffield United doing their best to take Town’s Premier League record of goals conceded, more pages of the club's history books could need updating this summer as the current crop look to make this season a historical one for all the wrong reasons. But why in the early 1980s, did Swindon reach rock bottom? Well, to tell that story, we have to go back another ten years to 1971.

“The financial problems go back to what is now the John Trollope stand,” said official historian of the Swindon Town Museum, Dick Mattick. “They built a stand that was bigger than they really wanted because the council wanted a stand fit for a club that looked like it was going into the first division. It was going to cost £200,000 and that was budgeted for, and then the inflation rates went up because of the Oil Crisis and so it ended up costing £400,000 because of all of the interest payments.

“To fund it, Don Rogers was sold, and the board said they would sell either him or Rod Thomas, it won’t be both. Don left one season and then Rod wanted to move, and they ended up both being gone.”

Despite some good years under Bobby Smith, these financial troubles began a decade-long decline for the club that saw them sink from the verge of the top flight to the fourth division by 1982. A vicious spiral ensued of problems with funding that the directors were not motivated to fix because of the way the club was funded, so key players left instead.

“There were very, very little funds to work with, basically having to make do with free transfers and players who had come up from the youth team,” said Mattick. “The big problem, and I think this has been the big problem of Swindon right through the ages, was that it was unsustainable.

"I went on the board at the start of the season after Lou Macari had been reappointed and what had always been the case was that however many shares you had in the company, you only got one vote. So, nobody would put any money in. When I joined the board, I had to put £15,000 in that was a loan to the company and for that, I got 15,000 management shares, so all ten directors put this money in and got an equal say.

“The money from the gate just about covered the interest from the bank, it didn’t make any indent on the wages or anything like that. The directors had no control over the funding, and they weren’t putting much money in, it was a case where we either balanced the books or we would go into administration, so people were being made redundant and players were being let go.”

Following a strong start to the 1982/83 season, Swindon tailed off and Trollope’s time as manager came to an end, to be replaced by Ken Beamish, who stepped up from being a player and assistant manager to take over. Mattick remembers the moment when Beamish inadvertently brought about his own promotion.

Former Swindon manager Ken Beamish (Image: Adver archive)

“I always remember sitting behind the goal and he only had to head the ball down from six yards at Elm Park and Ken Beamish headed it over the bar. I always thought that probably got him the job as manager because it got John Trollope the sack.”

There was further upheaval as star player Paul Rideout left for Aston Villa for an initial £175,000 to help cover the costs, even though the board had said he would not be sold. To replace him, former favourite Alan Mayes returned to the County Ground, along with the additions of Scott Endersby, Dave Hockaday, Nigel Gray, Paul Richardson, and Garry Nelson.

“The offers that I had, I was quite disappointed because I had a chance to stay in the Second Division with Oxford,” said Mayes. “Brentford, I think were in the Third Division, but there was just no money around. I wasn’t aware of the financial situation, but I was on a free transfer, and I knew what I was looking for if I was moving on from Chelsea. [Money] wasn’t the sole reason but it played its part.”

Hockaday arrived from fellow Division Four club Blackpool in the hope that his personal fortunes would change having played for a team that was something of a basket case during his eight years there. Beamish, he said, offered him what he was looking for.

Beamish with new-signing Hockaday (Image: Adver archive)

“I loved it at Blackpool but the manager that came in decided that he needed to shake the tree and said that I could go at the end of the season. I think I just filled in a pink form that said I could be a free agent and I had a lot of interest, which was nice. The biggest club was Birmingham City and a number of Division Three clubs.

“Whenever I played against Swindon I had always done well, and I had scored goals against them. I just looked upon them as a club that I liked. I went down and met with Ken Beamish and John Trollope and liked what I heard and signed; it was a gut instinct. I remember going out of the room with Ken and John and saying I needed to contact Birmingham City. They had offered me a contract, but Ron Saunders said they wouldn’t be able to honour that, and I would have to come in on trial, so I went back in and signed with Swindon.

“Their pitch was that we want to get a lot of exciting players who want to attack teams and they thought they would have a decent chance of doing well. I had been at Blackpool for eight years, which had all been a gradual decline and there had been 12 managers in those eight years, I just went in very naively hoping we would have a good season.”

The season began in an indifferent fashion, with a defeat at Chesterfield on the opening day, but that was followed by a 4-0 demolition of Chester City in the first home game as Mayes notched the first two of the 20 goals he would score that season. However, most games seemed to be one step forward and two steps back and it was clear early on that they had some trouble with their star man.

Mayes after re-joining Town (Image: Adver archive)

“I didn’t have the best relationship with Ken,” Mayes said. “I am not going to go into the contractual aspects, but it has to do with commuting. I had a to-do with Ken and John Collins through something they said during a game which was totally inappropriate and against everything that I am about. I think we played on a Friday night, and I was brought off at half time because of this altercation. I had stayed over with Jimmy Quinn and then had to play in the reserves on the Saturday and I scored a hat-trick.

“It was difficult and whether I made the right decision to commute, I am not sure, maybe I could have stayed a couple of nights from Thursday through to Saturday. Whether the club could have arranged better digs, there were digs around the corner, but it wasn’t ideal from a playing perspective to be going backwards and forwards. I needed a bit more help with that side of things and it wasn’t particularly forthcoming.

“I remember I hit a pheasant one day coming in and my car conked out and I had to get it towed back home. That was no fault of my own, but that didn’t go down very well. I was a bit disappointed at management given that situation because I was always professional and hard-working.”

The board not always understanding the players was something of a theme of the club at the time and caused tension with more than just Mayes.

Mattick said: “One of the things that struck me when I joined the board was that there was very much an us and them thing going on. In [Chris] Kamara’s book, he said they would go away, and the players are having bread and toast whilst the directors are tucking into a three-course meal.

“When they did board meetings, I would do the minutes, and they would always put down Mr. Hillier, Mr. Herbert, etcetera, and then it would be L. Macari and R. Jefferies. I thought that was medieval, we are all Swindon Town, there should be a togetherness, so I scrapped that.”

Hockaday enjoyed a far smoother relationship with Beamish and said that after his turbulent time at Blackpool, he appreciated the honesty of his new boss.

Hockaday in action against Watford (Image: Adver archive)

“He was loud and in your face. There was lots of stuff going on when I think back, but Ken was just very honest with me, and I wasn’t used to that. I was used to more than one manager in a season, and no one had time to get stuck in with me. He was blunt, whether that was appreciated or not by other people, I don’t know, but you take people as you find them, and Ken was just very straight with me. I worked hard, I was honest, and he seemed to like that.”

Although it is the manager who gives his name to the phrase by which the season will be remembered, both Hockaday and Mayes said that there was something missing from the squad of players that ultimately saw them come up short of their hopes for the campaign. They scored just two goals in December during a particularly lean period.

“There was always good banter in the dressing room, but it was quite a dysfunctional group and that proved to be the case on the pitch because we weren’t a good team,” said Hockaday. “There is not a lot said in that sort of environment because it is only negative, and you tend to circle the wagons and look after yourself as an individual and then get into your little groups.

“It was a tough place to be, but with my time at Blackpool, I just thought that was me for as long as I can keep kicking a ball and someone will pay me. I remember thinking halfway through the season that this is it and it isn’t all it is cracked up to be and it is very hard work. You are not paid a lot of money, you are in the bottom league, you haven’t done very well, and it is about having a job next season. It is that brutal. As the old saying goes, if it doesn’t kill you then it makes you stronger and I was incredibly bloody strong after nine years of no success.”

Quinn celebrates a goal (Image: Adver archive)

“It was clear as a team that we lacked one or two individuals,” added Mayes. “Maybe the money wasn’t there to strengthen the squad, unlike the previous spell when we had brought one or two in, experienced players.

“We had a good atmosphere and team morale generally, there were no major issues. Leigh Barnard and the goalkeeper kept everyone laughing. We had good players, but were we good enough as a team to deliver what the club wanted in promotion? We weren’t.”

As generally happens to teams that are not performing on the pitch, the crowds fell away. 3,635 people came out to see a 3-2 defeat to Halifax Town in September, but by the time Peterborough United visited in May, less than 2,000 people were coming to home games.

Ten years of decline had reached its lowest ebb in May 1984, with only seven teams finishing below Swindon in the whole Football League. Their first-time manager unable to get a tune out of a squad of players that was not devoid of talent, including a fan-favourite striker making a much-heralded return, but struggled to work together as a unit, and couldn’t beat Aldershot Town at home.  Years of players leaving, slipping down the league ladder, falling attendances, struggles with the stadium, and a board that did not have the finances or the want to invest led to a season that was, to date, the worst in the club’s history.

Beamish lasted the whole season and would eventually leave in June, although the club had initially planned to keep him on despite the difficult campaign. It was the influence of a new sponsor that changed the direction of travel for the whole club, as Mattick explains, even if they didn’t get the man they wanted.

“The proviso laid down by Lowndes Lambert was that they wanted a high-profile player-manager to generate publicity. Their first choice was a guy from Liverpool, whose name I have now forgotten, who was interviewed, and the board wanted him, but Liverpool said he was still in their plans, and he turned them down. So, then they went with their second choice, which was Lou Macari.”

Macari appointed Swindon manager (Image: Adver archive)

With the club having reached rock bottom, Macari came in and produced a bounce that set about an unprecedented period of success that through himself, Osvaldo Ardiles, and Glenn Hoddle would see Swindon make the Premier League ten years later. That “dysfunctional group” became one for whom “the wanting to win became a needing to win.”

Mayes said that Macari brought in: “More discipline, changed the mood, and changed the attitude of the side” with his famous fitness regimen.

“The very first day we ran up to the Downs and Barbary Castle and beyond,” said Hockaday. “Lou just said ‘Let’s stop this, this is silly, we are not going to do this, we are going to play football.’ That was literally his first day he said that. But he was very shrewd, and he looked at the league and what was going on and thought ‘Forget that I am going to run you buggers and I am going to make you so fit that you will just run over teams.’

“When you run hard and you start winning games and you come in and you aren’t even breathing at all, then we were all willing and we would have run anywhere for him.”

Swindon were on a one-way trip to being up for re-election by the end of the season, but with a bit of money (often placed in brown envelopes) and the right man at the helm, things started to change.