COLUMN: Swindon Town: it's the hope that kills you

Football cliches. There's so many that there's a book dedicated to the genre. You could write a novel on Swindon's fascination with them.

Everything from 'every game is a cup final', to 'it doesn't matter how you win' and 'one game at a time' - Swindon have had the lot, and then some.

The one that gets used most often though, and with good reason as it is the one most appropriate, is "it's the hope that kills you" and, my God, isn't that the truth?

On too many occasions to remember this season Swindon fans could, and perhaps should, have resigned their hope to the nearest dustbin.

A 1-1 draw against ten-man Shrewsbury, a 2-1 defeat at home to Oxford, levelling away at Northampton and going 2-1 down less than a minute later, a 0-0 draw against Oldham at the County Ground, losing to Chesterfield with a goal with the last kick of the game, and then Bradford away. 1-0 up with five minutes left before going down 2-1.

Teams that do the above should not be staying in League One. Then you add in the fact that Swindon's top scorer in all competitions is Luke Norris with a lowly six goals.

Their top two league goalscorers are Jon Obika and Nicky Ajose - two great players at this level, with five, but the former has had more battles with injury this season than Mr.Bump and Ajose only signed in January, which illustrates how key he has been since his return.

Perhaps what has been most frustrating for Swindon supporters this season is the club's uncanny knack to flatter to deceive.

When you've only won one away match all season, no-one expects you to go and beat Bolton at the Macron. Swindon did. When you go 2-0 down to Sheffield United no-one expects you to get anything out of it. Swindon got the score level at 2-2, then threw it away. Or, in the case of the unfortunate Will Henry, literally passed the win to Sheffield.

Town's last two results as well have been a 1-0 win over Millwall with the goal coming right at the death after 90 minutes of nothing and another remarkable away triumph at Fleetwood, who are going for promotion. MK Dons at the weekend will really show if they are really made of survival credentials, or whether it was purely the latest flash-in-the-pan.

Any other year Swindon could probably have been written off long ago, but SISU victims Coventry and winding-up-order-threatened Oldham are in the mire too, as well as a Bury side that went 20 games with only one win (then beat Swindon), while Chesterfield, Port Vale and a Gillingham outfit in utter freefall don't look capable of surviving either, but someone has to.

This lot, somehow, keep the Robins flapping their wings and, unbelievably, we haven't seen any fly through any windows yet as a sign of death.

We will find out in the next few weeks which division Swindon will be playing in next season and a couple of wins in the last five games will keep Town in contention for survival until the end, which won't end the latest stream of cliches.

It's not over until the fat lady sings.