Balancing the books, regaining the town's trust, and that plane crash: Mark Devlin's Swindon story

Mark Devlin knows better than most what it is like to grip the rudder in a storm at Swindon Town.

Devlin is currently chief executive at Leyton Orient but, for two spells in the 2000s, he steered the good ship Swindon through choppy waters, battling financial limitations and the seemingly never-ending threat of administration – all while trying to put together a capable and entertaining team.

As has so often been the case since the turn of the millennium, Devlin-era Town was in a near constant state of crisis – be that existentially or of confidence.