The Greatest Ever Swindon Town Players

Figure 1 Swindon fans have enjoyed some great football over the years

If you have read any of our reports and previews of Swindon Town matches on this site you will have seen that we are passionate fans of the club. We also offer our own players’ ratings after each fixture to give you an idea of what we think is going right – and wrong – with the team.

We’re Swindon through and through, so we thought we would take a minute to think back to some of the best ever players at the County Ground. These are the kinds of players that would feature in all the headlines and sports betting sites of their time. Read on to find out who we think represented the club the best.

Harry Morris

Where else to start but with the player who turned out for Swindon almost 100 years ago but still holds the record as the all-time leading goal scorer? Morris joined the club in 1926, actually dropping down a division, and scored hat-tricks in each of his first two games. He went on to break many more records including being the first Swindon player to score five in one game.

Although he never won any silverware while at the club (largely down to problems at the other end of the pitch) Morris did end up scoring an incredible 229 goals in 279 games. At 35 he was

thought to be too old by the new manager in 1933 and he left the club for Clapton Orient. He was arguably the greatest ever Swindon Town player.

Colin Calderwood

This Scotland international and future Premier League regular was signed by Lou Macari and immediately installed as the captain, even though he was just 20 years old at the time. His leadership was certainly impressive – and the club won back-to-back promotions into the second tier. He was also a key member of the squad that brought the club to the top flight of English football in 1990.

We all know what happened then but Calderwood stuck by the club and helped win promotion, yet again, to the Premier League in 1993. By then he had attracted the attention of Tottenham Hotspur - but he will always be remembered at the County Ground as one of the finest defenders and captains the club has ever seen.

Don Rogers

Signing for the club at the tender age of 15, Don Rogers is truly a Swindon Town legend. In two spells at the Country Ground, Rogers played 490 times and is best known for his two extra time goals that helped the club win the League Cup against Arsenal in 1969.

Rogers moved to Crystal Palace in 1972 but came back to Swindon after also turning out for QPR. In honour of the great man’s achievements, Swindon renamed the South Stand the Don Rogers Stand in 2008 and he became the club’s first official ambassador in 2021.

Figure 2 The youth team players are following in the footsteps of some true greats

John Trollope

You don’t see it much these days, but John Trollope is a real one-club legend. In a playing career that spanned just over 20 years, the left-back played almost 900 games and was part of that League Cup winning side in 1969. He even came out of retirement to help the club in 1981.

After he finally did hang up his boots he took over as manager of the club for what was a very disappointing time for Swindon, with his hands tied due to such a small budget. He later went on to work under Lou Macari, Glenn Hoddle, Ossie Ardiles, John Gorman and Steve MacMahon – ending up working for the club in some capacity for over 40 years.

Ernie Hunt

Born and raised in Swindon, Roger Patrick Hunt was known by his father’s name ‘Ernie’ to avoid confusion with the Liverpool striker of the time. He signed with Swindon as an amateur in 1957 and made his debut two years later, then the youngest ever player for the club.

A prolific striker, he was the top goal scorer for four seasons running and helped Swindon gain promotion to the Second Division in 1963. Unfortunately he left after relegation the next season for a then club record £40,000. He went on to score one of the most memorable goals in English football, finishing off a Willie Carr flick to win the first ever Goal of the Season award while at Coventry in 1971.