Mid-November, and the serenade of the terraces includes that most wonderful of songs: “We are Swindon, we’re top of the league”.

While renditions performed early in the season often have a semi-ironic lilt, a table is now beginning to take a shape which will not seem unrecognisable come May. Look at Swindon’s position at the top of it, and the chasing pack behind, and you can see the runners and riders in the battle for promotion to League One.

Of course, nothing is guaranteed in football: being top after sixteen games is a job not even half done. Plenty of teams have come from relative nowhere at this point in a season to get promoted.

More worryingly, many more have started well and dropped off. But a look back through the league leaders at this stage in recent seasons is a list of teams who, mostly, eventually went up.

Port Vale, Stockport County, Leyton Orient and Forest Green Rovers led the table after the equivalent amount of games over the last four campaigns. All went up automatically, with three as champions. The year before, Newport County bucked the trend by only making the play-offs, in which they lost.

There are 30 games of hard work left before anything could be celebrated, but Swindon have at least built themselves the sort of platform for the rest of the season which bodes well historically.

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