AS WE prepare to meet for the final time this season, I thought I'd see how far my beloved club has progressed in the near 50 years I've been supporting the red and white.

I guess it's easy to run away with the idea that things were always better then and that life was generally good. Well here's the thing.

Swindon finished 10th in Division Three in my first season on the equivalent of 65 points (two points for a win in those days). That's just one point and three places worse off than we are now. What's even more bizarre is that the side that finished above them was Peterborough.

I know, spooky isn't it? So in nearly half a century we have moved up the league ladder three places. Of course in the meantime there have been considerable ups and downs. We've been with the elite and in the basement and it was a season later that the famous League Cup triumph happened.

Finishing top of division three that 67/68 season was a team from along the A420. All right, perhaps some things do change.

So here we are at the end of another campaign having done slightly better than the late sixties. We are a club that's spent most of its history in the league we're in now with the occasional foray elsewhere. But that never dims our passion and our ambition.

Alright the chances are that we'll never be among the top clubs in Europe, but do we care? Of course not.

Supporting a football team is more than about winning it's about being there. I hope the current warring factions over the ownership realise that. It's not about money, ego or one upmanship. It's about football pure and simple.

Fans are in it for the long haul good and bad.

Have a good summer.