With forty-six points gathered and ten games left, even the most optimistic or pessimistic of Swindon fans should agree: realistically, the club will neither slip through the trapdoor into non-league come early May, nor sneak into the play-offs for a shot at a place in League One.

We are in late season footballing purgatory, on the proverbial beach before spring has officially sprung. Given the position we were in a few months ago, that’s not a complaint. This is not just a situation every Swindon fan would have taken a few months ago, but what we actively would have hoped for as a best case scenario.

Nonetheless, it feels odd that a season has lost its jeopardy so early. The whole point of the EFL having play-offs is to reduce the amount of games played between sides with nothing at stake. Rather than following an obvious narrative, we’re left to create our own meaning for the season’s run in.

Last season, in a similar position, the focus was on clearing the infamous Beamish Line, the previous low water mark in a fourth tier Football League season. Gavin Gunning’s side couldn’t manage it.

This time around we could fixate on comparisons with Gunning’s crop, as well as outperforming Ken Beamish’s troupe, but faced with two full years where Swindon have blown, at different points, hot and cold, I would propose something else.

These last two seasons share a great deal in common. Sure, the personnel has changed, and the........

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