LEGENDARY Town goalkeeper Fraser Digby believes problems off the pitch hampered Swindon Town’s ambitions to reclaim a place in the second tier of English football in the recent past.

Digby was part of the last Town team to be promoted to what is now the Championship, doing so under Steve McMahon in the 1995-96 season.

That proved to be one of Digby’s final years at the County Ground as he joined Crystal Palace in 1998, although having spent 12 years at the club, he remained an ardent Town fan.

After Swindon dropped back down a level during the 1999-2000 campaign, Digby says numerous factors have prevented subsequent sides from matching the achievements of his promotion winning team.

“I’m not surprised (we were the last team to get promoted), I’m disappointed,” said Digby.

“The club then went through some massive changes. Sir Seton Wills left and it went through a period of total uncertainty.

“There were one or two dubious people that came in and that was the bit I was most sad about.

“Even though I was at a different club I was still aware of everything that was happening.

“That was the most disappointing thing as we were going back to the bad old days. Managers came and went and it wasn’t until the people before Lee (Power) came in that things started to turn around.”

Town’s emphatic title triumph during the 95-96 campaign came fresh off the back of two successive relegations, and Digby says that success was crucial for the club’s future.

Digby said: “There was still a good nucleus of players. The lads worked hard and worked as a team and that turned our fortunes around a bit. We needed that as it could have gone horribly wrong, so it was good to get back into the Championship.”

Digby is a stalwart of Town’s glory days in the late 80s and early 90s, first under Lou Macari, then Ossie Ardiles and Glenn Hoddle.

He says what Power and current boss Mark Cooper are doing at the County Ground as they bid to return to the Championship brings back plenty of fond memories.

“Between Mark and Lee there are a lot of similarities to when I was here with Lou. What they’re trying to achieve is so similar it’s scary,” said Digby. “Lou brought in a lot of players on the cheap, like Paul Bodin, Alan McCloughlin on a free from Man United and I came in for very little money.

“That’s what Lee is doing now. We got Massimo Luongo from Tottenham, we’ve got Yaser Kasim and people like Wes Foderingham, who have come in from bigger clubs.

“The similarities are uncanny. These players are going to be nurtured, like Lou did, and it’s going to be interesting to see how far we can go with it.”

The Advertiser approached Swindon Town to get involved with the Get The County Ground Rocking Campaign but they declined to respond.