13 games to find common ground: Manager and supporters must leave animosity at the door in pursuit of promotion

It was a throwaway remark in the middle of a much longer answer about an unrelated subject, but Ian Holloway’s words illustrated the fragile state of Swindon Town’s promotion challenge as we approach the season’s critical denouement.

Earlier this week, these pages presented an analysis of why a significant group of supporters have struggled to enjoy a season of unarguable success to date.

That analysis focused on the trickle-down effect of negative perception, and how fans’ views of the Robins’ ownership has led to Holloway being rendered guilty by association.

It looked at why Holloway is so defensive of Clem Morfuni, how his naturally emotional personality leaves him entrenched, and the clear unfairness of the club leaving him alone to be the public face of the ignominy of EFL Trophy expulsion.

On Friday, at his pre-match press conference ahead of the visit of Crewe Alexandra, Holloway gave the latest indication of how the situation is impacting him personally.

That comment about feeling “bottom of the league” came as he addressed Crewe’s formation and style of play. It is evidently a thought sitting right at the top of his mind. And understandably so.

Swindon is not a club united. The reality of the situation is that under the Morfuni administration it is very, very unlikely to ever be a club united. But, for its own sake, it needs to pretend to be. For the next 13 games, at least.

Because, right now, it is a factional mess. And everyone is at fault.

It is absolutely true that the senior management at Swindon Town, primarily the chairman and chief executive, still struggle to either understand the detail of complaints made about their regime, or flat out refuse to give them the time of day.

It is absolutely true that the fan experience at the County Ground sits somewhere on a spectrum between disappointing and dogshit.

It is absolutely true that supporters have not been taken along for the journey, that they have rarely been made to feel appreciated, that there has been a complete failure to understand what a community football club is.

But if the status quo is ever going to shift, there has to be an acceptance that this is a multi-way relationship.

We can demand introspection as much as we want from senior figures at the club but, without expecting it of ourselves, we are no better than common hypocrites.

Supporters must be honest about our part in the current détent unamical.

Yes, fans have been taken for granted for too long. Yes, it has been five long years chained to a radiator in the EFL basement. Yes, the modern history of Swindon Town reads like the spiralling observation chart of some poor sod on his last legs.

But it is wrong to think that fans can do nothing about it.

The atmosphere at home matches remains largely nervous and tentative, as if teetering on a precipice. The anticipation of disaster wins out over the enjoyment of triumph far too often.

There is a constant expectation of the worst.

Yet, look at what is actually happening.

Swindon have won more games than anyone else in League Two this season. Only two teams have scored more. They are one point shy of their total haul for the previous campaign. They have automatic promotion in their own hands.

And still we wait.

We wait for a misplaced pass. We wait for a player not to track a run. We wait to scream ‘get it forward’, then moan when the long ball doesn’t stick to the forward’s chest.

We all do it. We all sit quiet, quieter still, tutting and murmuring.

We are waiting for failure.

On the odd occasion this season when the support has been active rather than passive, the entire character of the County Ground has changed.

It was not just the players’ exhilarating performances against Bolton Wanderers that triggered that overwhelming red wave, it was a collective show of vocal force among fans.

Didn’t that experience spike your serotonin? Didn’t you find yourself drowned in dopamine? Didn’t it feel great?

It can’t be down to the players to provide that spark each and every week. Sometimes, teams need to be inspired just as much as supporters.

A symbiotic relationship between fans and players can create an environment in which success can lay root.

There is little by way of a relationship between manager and fans right now.

Holloway has a right to feel aggrieved.

He has the best win percentage of any Swindon manager since Paolo Di Canio (who, for the record, enjoyed a considerably larger budget than Holloway without accounting for inflation).

He has won 15 more games as Town boss than his four predecessors put together (in 17 fewer attempts).

He pulled this club, kicking and screaming, from a very real and present danger of relegation out of the EFL to a point where it is close enough to League One as to catch the faintest whiff on the breeze.

None of these achievements are his alone, but it is undeniable that he has been the catalyst and motivator.

It was he alone who forced a change in mindset around recruitment and football management from Morfuni.

It is he who, amid personal health problems and his wife’s most recent cancer battle, hunkered down and rebuilt.

Sure, he comes across as unlikable in some interviews.

Fine, he has found himself hoodwinked on extra-curricular matters – particularly the intricacies of the County Ground purchase.

But he also carried our spluttering husk of a football club away from death’s door last season, and towards promotion on a budget that while no longer pitiful, does not get close to the richest in the division.

Most football managers are judged on their team’s return on the pitch. At present, Holloway is not.

It is on everyone to stop a moment and ask some pertinent questions of ourselves, as we approach the run-in.

Do we not owe it to each other to try to put faction and friction to one side, for the final 13 games of the season at least?

What is this constant standoff actually achieving? And, in any case, is it based on anything tangible?

Fans have the power to park their personal irritations with Holloway’s opinions. Holloway himself can, and is known to have considered, limiting the scope of his answers in the media. The club’s ownership can discover the necessary self-awareness to recognise what it does wrong, and accept that the criticism they hate is actually valid.

Somewhere, somehow, something has to give. This club cannot look to the future in any meaningful way in its current state of perma-faction. Frankly, it might not even see out the next 13 fixtures.