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Vic Morgan: A New Year & A Crucial Month For Town
Lifelong Robins fan has his say on everything Swindon Town, each week on Total Sport. With a new year ahead of us, Morgan examines what may turn out to be the most important month in Town's season.
Another year another fresh start. Happy New Year!
The busy festive fixtures are behind us albeit truncated with the postponement of the Port Vale game. That means a Tuesday night in Burslem next week. Oh well, best to get that out of the way, if it stops raining that is.
It wasn't the best of Christmases for our team. Okay at Shrewsbury, if you count that one, but disappointing results at home to Gillingham and away at Burton Albion,halted our recent excellent form.
The game at Burton brought to an end Martin Ling's brief tenure in the Town managerial hot seat. Martin clearly isn't over the problems that ended his time at Torquay. Frustrating as it is to lose a manager after a very short reign, I've not heard one word against Lingy.
Swindon fans wished him well when he took over and wish him well now. What's most important is his health and well being.
Things like depression are difficult to explain. What seems well on the outside feels different on the inside. All we can do is hope he gets well soon. Martin let's see you back in football in some capacity in the future, you have a lot to offer.
What's in store then in 2016? Obviously who takes over is top of the agenda. At the time of writing coach Luke Williams appears to be the favourite, certainly in the short term. That would give some sort of stability.
However is that the right choice? Well the only thing that will reveal that is time.
What thoughts the chairman has on the situation is what counts though, as he makes the decisions, and it's one of the most important he's had for a long time.
The season could go either way. With results improving under Martin Ling, some fans were even thinking of the play offs. I suppose that's still not entirely out of the question. More important though, is making sure we stay in League One.
Points are still needed to get away from the lower reaches of the table. No Town fan wants to consider a return to the league's basement. Any decision now will have a massive impact on the next five months, not only in a managerial appointment but in player recruitment.
We've lost the influential Adam El Abd who's returned to his parent club at Ashton Gate, but to counter that we may see the return shortly of our skipper Nathan Thompson. Every Swindon supporter knows how important Nathan is, not only for his playing ability but for his leadership too.
So over to you Mr. Chairman. Our club is in your hands and, as always, we will be there to support those who represent it.
This month is crucial. Let's hope the fresh new year will bring success and prosperity to the team in red and white.
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