Many characters in Swindon Town’s past have made famous claims about their team, but just how many of them were acted on?

Across the history of the club, managers, players, and key off-field figures have made plenty of claims and predictions about their team, so how often have they followed that up?

Bert Head: “We are just 42 games from Division One.”

Made in 1963 when Swindon had just won promotion into what would now be the Championship. It seemed it might be going to become true. Six games in to the season we were top of League with a hundred per cent record.

Mr Lacey, a geography master at Park Grammar School, knowing his teenage boys were likely to remember a word used in conjunction with football, said it would be an ephemeral success. Sadly, he proved correct.

By the season’s end, Swindon had slipped down to mid-table. Worse still, the following season, which began with their goalkeeper suffering a broken leg in the opening game of the season and with England Under 23 International Ernie Hunt missing much of the season through illness or injury, it proved Town had only been 84 games from Division Three.

Following a 2-1 defeat at Southampton before Portsmouth played out a draw with Northampton, giving Pompey the point they needed to avoid relegation and the Cobblers to get the point needed for promotion.

The comment about 42 games to Division One appeared in a local weekly paper, the Swindon Echo. With Swindon sliding towards relegation, disquiet was expressed at the manager writing in the local press and at the season’s end,........

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