Throughout football history, it has always been the goal scorers who commanded the biggest transfer fees.

Alf Common, the first £1,000 transfer, Jimmy Greaves, the first £100,000 transfer (well, minus the quid Bill Nicholson deducted to take the pressure off) and Trevor Francis, the first million pound signing were all strikers. It is surprising therefore that the three leading goalscorers in the history of Swindon Town cost a total of just £200.

This article will look at them in three ways. The basic statistics, the methods they used, and the impact they had on the team’s results.

Harold Fleming was the first player in the club’s history to score twenty goals in a season in 1908-09, scoring Southern League goals in 34 appearances. He never managed 20 goals in League matches again, although he was the team’s top scorer on three more occasions, including scoring Town’s first in the Football League. He ranks second in Town’s all-time highest scorers.

Chronologically, the next of the top three scorers was Harry Morris. He is one of the few men to have achieved the feat of scoring forty goals in a league season. Having been bought from Swansea Town for £200, he had an amazing scoring record. In his first season, 1926-27, he scored no less than 47 goals in 41 League appearances.

Many strikers seem to have one golden season after a transfer and then fade away, but Morris followed up........

© Swindon Advertiser