Swindon Town means everything to our community... this Saturday, let's do it for us

After the promise, and the angst; after the thrills, and the despair. It’s all come down to this.

Swindon Town host Chesterfield knowing only a win will do.

Daunting? Maybe. Forlorn? Perhaps. But we must not forget that days like tomorrow are what we do it for.

What is it?

It is the five o’clock starts for the seven-hour bus ride. It is the sub-zero midwinter morgue, 200 miles from home. It is the intolerable 0-0 draw, and the final-minute defeat.

It is the £400 season ticket. It is paying regardless.

It is the hope. It is the heartbreak. It is believing and refusing to believe in the same afternoon; sometimes in the same sentence.

It is seeing your little boy’s face light up at the sight of the stadium. It is your daughter asking you when she can go again.

It is that unlikely friendship with your neighbour. It is the sense of security you get over a pre-match pint. It is decades-long relationships, and the boundless celebration of a complete stranger.

It is jumping to your feet and freeing yourself from your moorings in a whirlwind of uncontrollable delight.

It is slumping back in your seat, contemplating calamity.

It is sadness. It is darkness. Sometimes, it is anger.

It is laughing. It is frowning. It is crying, both in happiness and haplessness.

It is a bond with 11 men you barely know.

It is an affinity with everyone around you. It is connection. It is community.

It is everything.

For thousands of us, this club is everything. For everyone to do with Swindon Town, this game is everything.

Against the backdrop of division, dissent and disappointment, we need each other this Saturday afternoon.

We need each other’s patience. We need each other’s persistence. We need each other’s passion.

And we need every voice.

We need it to be loud.

The County Ground must be ferocious. It must be intimidating. It must be hostile. For our guests, it must be borderline unacceptable.

Yet, amid all that, we need to respect each other. We need to recognise our own flaws, and resist the urge to exaggerate them.

We must operate as one, with a singular voice that has been so hard to capture for so long.

Because what is the point of it all unless, on days like this, we can come together?

What is the point?

Swindon Town has spent too long lost. And while we might exist as a fragmented community, we are still a community.

We can prove that this weekend.

Let’s do it. For us.