Football Season Review

It was a season that Swindon fans will remember with mixed feelings, as the Robins performed above all expectations and even pushed for direct promotion for long periods, but eventually finished fourth and had their promotion dream ended by Preston, who handed them a heavy 4:0 defeat in the play-off final at Wembley. Despite ultimately failing to deliver promotion, Mark Cooper deserves a lot of praise for getting the Robins to play what most neutrals would describe as "proper football" and for turning them into a formidable side capable of crushing anyone in the division on their day. The Robins played their best football in the first half of the season, as they lost only two of their opening 26 games, and became the first side that managed to hand a defeat to eventual champions Bristol City. They looked set to push for direct promotion at that stage, but their form started to decline in February, and this dip in form, combined with excellent runs produced by MK Dons and Preston, turned direct promotion into a mere pipe-dream for them with several games to spare, and Cooper heavily rotated his lineup in the final three games of the season with the intention to keep his squad injury-free for the play-offs. The Robins managed to pass the first hurdle, as they claimed a dramatic 7:6 aggregate victory over Sheffield United, but failed to show up at Wembley, as they were comprehensively beaten by Preston in what was the most important game of the season. Cooper faces a very tough task over the upcoming summer, as he will have to try and replace two key players in Massimo Luongo, who is all but certain to move a division up or two over the summer, and Louis Thompson, who signed for Norwich earlier in the season and was loaned back.

Player of the Season: Massimo Luongo