ON MARCH 1, Kevin MacDonald walked into a no-win situation at Swindon Town.

Had the Scot guided Town to promotion from League One – via the play-offs or through automatic promotion - he would have been told he had simply finished off the work previously undertaken by Paolo Di Canio.

If he failed, as eventually he did, he would be lambasted for not capitalising on the position the team were in when he inherited their undeniable talents.

In two short months at the County Ground, the man who won the double with Liverpool has had to go through an entirely new footballing education. His every action has been acutely critiqued, his touchline demeanour compared in detail to his predecessor, his formation selection routinely poo-pooed and his various interviews slated for their relative “lack of passion”.

MacDonald’s techniques are hugely different from Di Canio’s and the players have responded in different ways to them. Gary Roberts has shone under his tutelage but Simon Ferry, consigned to an unfamiliar wide position, was not given the role to suit his abilities.

A sixth-place finish was two slots down from where he found the Robins back in March. But for a daft seven minutes at Scunthorpe on the final day he would have maintained fourth.

A catalogue of injury problems, a lack of flexibility in the transfer market and the task of inheriting a squad with just 13 games of the regular season remaining were all obstacles MacDonald had to hurdle. He kept his composure, but couldn’t deliver the goal all associated with the club wanted.

Reflecting on a difficult yet brief time in charge, MacDonald told the Advertiser: “Obviously it was disappointing the way we went out in the play-off semi-final.

“Over the two legs I thought there was basically nothing between the two sides. It was a game for two teams not one, but they just scored one extra penalty.

“Over the two months that I’ve been here I think the players have been outstanding. It’s not been easy for them because it’s been a change of tack compared to the previous management team.

“We’ve had some good things, some bad things. I would say we’ve just been average over the whole period of the 12, 13 games. There was obviously a lot more that I would have liked to have done, that wasn’t to be.

“Part of that was down to injuries and not being able to get everything I wanted across to the players, but that’s going to be important for pre-season training.

“It was obviously difficult to a point because the players were well-drilled in how the previous management wanted to play.

“But the big thing being is that had this club been in a stable situation then I wouldn’t have been given the job and I understand that. It was a great chance for me and I’ve loved every minute of it.

“The people that I’ve worked with and alongside have been fantastic. All the people at the football club have been great.

“The fans are desperate to get success but nobody’s more desperate to get success than I am. I was successful as a player and I’ve been successful as a coach.

“When I came in, the big thing for me was to get into the play-offs. We managed to do that - it would have been nice to get promotion, it would have been nice to get to Wembley of course - and I do understand that the fans have seen over the last couple of years they (the team) have done really well.

“For people to say what they want about me, that’s fine, especially if they come and pay at the turnstiles and put money into the club, they can say what they want and have an opinion. I totally agree with that.

“It’s the ones that probably don’t go to games and sit on their computers or sit listening to the radio and make an opinion from there - they need to have a more qualified opinion.

“Nobody likes being targeted for abuse by anybody and me especially, but it happens in football. There’s point in being in the game if you don’t expect that at some stage, so I understand their frustration, but they have got to understand my frustration as well, because no one is more desperate to win games than I am.”