Former Swindon Town forward Jordan Stewart opens up about his time at the club

Ex-Swindon Town forward Jordan Stewart has had a dig at the club he left last summer.

Stewart arrived at Swindon in the summer of 2015 from Glentoran in his native Northern Ireland, after Town paid a fee believed to be £50,000 for the services of the  attacking midfielder, who could also be played as a striker.

He left two seasons later after a rollercoaster time at the County Ground, where he made just eight appearances following a bout of homesickness and a MCL injury either side of a loan to then-National League side Grimsby Town.

Stewart is now back in Northern Ireland with Linfield, who are fifth in the Premiership and, speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, he has opened up about his time in Wiltshire.

"I'm glad to do an interview like this because it will give an insight into what really happened. It's easy for people to sit at home, read the newspaper and hammer me on Twitter, but they don't understand what happened.

"Clubs in higher leagues wanted me but I felt I would get an opportunity to get into the first team at Swindon. I wasn't far off that but I just had nowhere to live for the first two or three months, moving to different hotels and carrying two suitcases after training.

"The club put me in an ex-player's flat and it was disgusting. It hadn't been cleaned and I decided to go to the airport and go home. The club could have done a lot more to help me. I wasn't a kid, I was 20-years old, but I had never been away on my own, I didn't know anyone and when you aren't settled you lose interest.

"The club publicly said they tried to help me but they did very little for me. I quit my job and didn't get a penny from them in a signing-on fee. For the first few weeks I needed to borrow money from my mum.

"There were people at the club who helped me, there are good people there, but my living conditions were not sorted. They put me in accommodation with the cameraman, and after I made my debut against Millwall I came home and he had 10 people in the apartment having a party.

"I felt it was a shambles and they weren't worried about me. I went home and was close to packing it in. Then I thought about proving people wrong, changed my attitude and vowed to win every fitness test at the club and I did.

"That changed people's opinions of me and I got more responsibility."

Although Stewart's time at Swindon had its fair share of lows, a high came in the EFL Cup, when he scored a fantastic volley in a narrow defeat to Championship side Queens Park Rangers.

"I came on against QPR in the EFL Cup and scored and thought I would kick on. The relief and satisfaction was immense because I had worked incredibly hard. My family were there to see it which was nice.

"That's my best moment in football until now, but not long after that I suffered a knee injury and it was over - that was my lowest moment. My knee went after taking a shot in training. I was meant to go away with the Northern Ireland U21 squad but I could hardly walk.

"When I found out how serious it was I cried, and my two flatmates cried because they knew the effort I had put in. It was heartbreaking."

Despite not enjoying his first stint as a professional, Stewart is desperate to return and would even come back to Swindon if the opportunity presented itself.

"I know my experience was not great but I would even go back to Swindon and try again. I had a dream to be a professional footballer and it hasn't left me. I made friends for life at Swindon.

"I had some good experiences there, and if you want something so badly, you'll take it. The stadium and fans were fantastic.

"When I was there something wasn't right at the club, there were management changes and I just didn't settle. I didn't miss Belfast, I just felt no-one helped me to settle. I didn't know how to cook or wash clothes, so in a way the experience turned me into a man."