McCormack: We've moved on since Clarke

BUST-UP: Leon Clarke during his spell at Swindon BUST-UP: Leon Clarke during his spell at Swindon

LEON Clarke’s return to the County Ground will not affect the Swindon Town players one bit, according to club captain Alan McCormack.

The striker arrives back in Wiltshire today for the first time since the infamous occasion last August when the 27-year-old, then part of the Town squad, refused to leave the pitch post-match following a scrap with manager Paolo Di Canio in the tunnel.

Clarke, who had only been with the Robins for 12 days, was soon packed off on loan to Chesterfield and never represented the club again - and all eyes are likely to fall on the forward should he come into contact with his former boss this afternoon However, McCormack emphasised how long ago the incident took place and how little it means in the greater scheme of things.

“We haven’t even thought about it, we haven’t even spoken about it. It’s a long time ago that it happened.

“It’s over a year now and everyone moves on in life, things happen in life especially in football where people have such a high opinion of certain things.

“We aren’t going to look to go out and dislike a player because of what happened, what happened was between him and the staff at the club and everyone knows that.

“He’s moved on, we’ve moved on, we had a very successful year last year and we go out to win the game - whether it’s against him or against any other player that’s left this club.

“It makes no difference, we want to win the game and that’s what we’ll go out to do this Saturday.”

Three other players with recent associations to Swindon are also part of the Scunthorpe squad, with Callum Kennedy, David Prutton and Mike Grella all in line to face their former club.

That will mean plenty of reunions during the warm-up but McCormack stressed that, once the game gets under way, pleasantries will be quickly abandoned.

“As soon as it comes to the game at three o’clock, any player will tell you, friendship does go out the window a little bit and you have more arguments with your friends that you’re close to on the pitch in a game than you do off the pitch,” he said.

“There’s no friendship in football. Come three o’clock it’s all about getting three points for Swindon Town.”

Comments(19)

Lazaat says...
6:43am Sat 20 Oct 12

Leon who?

batch says...
7:28am Sat 20 Oct 12

Clarke may be a ****, but he's handy at this level. That's why Paolo bought him.

Prutton on the other hand was chief teapot in a team of chocolate teapots.

Swindon1984 says...
7:46am Sat 20 Oct 12

batch wrote:
Clarke may be a ****, but he's handy at this level. That's why Paolo bought him.

Prutton on the other hand was chief teapot in a team of chocolate teapots.
Very good - now I have an image Leon Clarke as an actual walking, talking teapot - like Angela Lansbury in beauty and the beast. Ugh...

BillyLucas4me says...
8:02am Sat 20 Oct 12

lazaat asked 'Leon Who?'


Striker
Goals With:-
Swindon 0 in 2
Chesterfield 9 in 14
Charlton 1 in 6
Crawley 1 in 3
Scunthorpe 6 in 7
i.e. 17 in 32

He owes us 2 to-day (own goals?)

the real Tosh man says...
8:30am Sat 20 Oct 12

BillyLucas4me wrote:
lazaat asked 'Leon Who?'


Striker
Goals With:-
Swindon 0 in 2
Chesterfield 9 in 14
Charlton 1 in 6
Crawley 1 in 3
Scunthorpe 6 in 7
i.e. 17 in 32

He owes us 2 to-day (own goals?)
Pretty handy eh, I was disappointed he went. Exactly what we're missing right now.

SAPFanSTFC says...
8:41am Sat 20 Oct 12

the real Tosh man wrote:
BillyLucas4me wrote:
lazaat asked 'Leon Who?'


Striker
Goals With:-
Swindon 0 in 2
Chesterfield 9 in 14
Charlton 1 in 6
Crawley 1 in 3
Scunthorpe 6 in 7
i.e. 17 in 32

He owes us 2 to-day (own goals?)
Pretty handy eh, I was disappointed he went. Exactly what we're missing right now.
...what?...an overgrown cry baby with an over inflated ego...just look at how many clubs he's played for and you get the idea that the negatives outweigh the positives.
---.
We've got better, the goals will come.
---.
Updated League Tables and Coventry Results Here:
---.
http://www.thisisswi
ndontownfc.co.uk/new
s/headlines/9987726.
PREDICTIONS_LEAGUE__
Coventry_results/?ac
tion=success
===.
...and add your predictions for this week here:
---.
http://www.thisisswi
ndontownfc.co.uk/new
s/9993791.PREDICTION
S_LEAGUE__Swindon_v_
Scunthorpe/

SAPFanSTFC says...
8:41am Sat 20 Oct 12

the real Tosh man wrote:
BillyLucas4me wrote:
lazaat asked 'Leon Who?'


Striker
Goals With:-
Swindon 0 in 2
Chesterfield 9 in 14
Charlton 1 in 6
Crawley 1 in 3
Scunthorpe 6 in 7
i.e. 17 in 32

He owes us 2 to-day (own goals?)
Pretty handy eh, I was disappointed he went. Exactly what we're missing right now.
...what?...an overgrown cry baby with an over inflated ego...just look at how many clubs he's played for and you get the idea that the negatives outweigh the positives.
---.
We've got better, the goals will come.
---.
Updated League Tables and Coventry Results Here:
---.
http://www.thisisswi
ndontownfc.co.uk/new
s/headlines/9987726.
PREDICTIONS_LEAGUE__
Coventry_results/?ac
tion=success
===.
...and add your predictions for this week here:
---.
http://www.thisisswi
ndontownfc.co.uk/new
s/9993791.PREDICTION
S_LEAGUE__Swindon_v_
Scunthorpe/

RAYSPARROW says...
8:56am Sat 20 Oct 12

He had 3 good chances to score against Southampton and missed all 3.

southside7 says...
9:04am Sat 20 Oct 12

batch wrote:
Clarke may be a ****, but he's handy at this level. That's why Paolo bought him.

Prutton on the other hand was chief teapot in a team of chocolate teapots.
Prutton was a poor player for us, glad he's cut his hair though he looked a right t1t.

mallorca says...
9:04am Sat 20 Oct 12

Nice to see Mac fit, again today like all games are hard as we tend to forget we went upa division.
Plus all the off field antics have not helped.I sometimes think about this 1.5% that we overspent the embargo has taken a back seat and no doubt the powers to be will let us all know what's happening.
Feel they should concentrate on the football side of things and just get on with it.
I guess like a few of you all we get a feeling that just maybe all is not right at the CG
All these smoke screens this week /looking for money investors /middle east connects,is way beyond me.
Still I just hope the Team can carry on as normal,ok have a few hic-cups at home but overall a decent start to season in the top 6 cannot be that bad/
Good luck today TOWN get the result

stfcknowitall says...
9:09am Sat 20 Oct 12

Scunthorpe aren't as bad as thier form, suggests, we can beat them well if we play like we know we can but then again if we either start sluggish or decide not to play the full 90+ mins then we could be in for a long afternoon!

As the adver has said we have 3 former town players all up against us today, prutton doesn't bother me but leon and callum could definately be a threat, just hoping that another former left-back doesn't whip in another free kick against us again as we all know kennedy has a very good left foot when it comes to free kicks!

COME ON YOU REDS!!

RAYSPARROW says...
9:22am Sat 20 Oct 12

Wilson played Prutton instead of Ferry. One of his big mistakes.

mikek says...
10:37am Sat 20 Oct 12

I wonder if Macca will walk straight back into the side. Flint and McCormack for me as they were simply magnificent last season and our best two at the back by far. Although I still feel Macca could do a job in the middle of the park where we have been weak. If that were the case it would be Flint and TAH for me.

Oi Den! says...
10:48am Sat 20 Oct 12

SAP, I'm not sure how one show of petulance makes someone an "overgrown cry baby with an overinflated ego". I thought Clarke showed enough in his very brief spell with us to show that he was what we needed then - a hardworking physical menace to opposition defences. Even now I would rather he was playing for us than the opposition.

swindonmatt says...
11:42am Sat 20 Oct 12

Hi on a different subject has anyone had a prob with the box office number? On the phone an hour started at numb 80 in the que got 2 numb 1 then told 2 leave mess then cut me off. Realy **** off.

southside7 says...
12:47pm Sat 20 Oct 12

Just been past CG, big queue outside office, I guess for last phase of Villa tickets

London Red says...
1:34pm Sat 20 Oct 12

Den you seem to have conveniently forgotten his entire career!
.
Once and you maybe right - but how do you explain bust ups at the majority of his parent clubs?
.
PdC said he got messages saying good luck with that one after it was announced we signed him - so clearly has a record - PdC said he hoped Clarke would see this as "one final chance" but no it was too much to ask!
.
Same as Leon Knight - PdC was going to give him a chance - but as they say a leopard can't change it spots!

Swindon1984 says...
2:26pm Sat 20 Oct 12

With that many ex-Town players out there, one of them's bound to score! Bet it's Clarke. We'll just have yo score a few more than them then.

Oi Den! says...
5:29pm Sat 20 Oct 12

London Red wrote:
Den you seem to have conveniently forgotten his entire career!
.
Once and you maybe right - but how do you explain bust ups at the majority of his parent clubs?
.
PdC said he got messages saying good luck with that one after it was announced we signed him - so clearly has a record - PdC said he hoped Clarke would see this as "one final chance" but no it was too much to ask!
.
Same as Leon Knight - PdC was going to give him a chance - but as they say a leopard can't change it spots!
I didn't know about the other bust-ups. I knew he'd had a lot of clubs but didn't know the reason for all the moves. PDC has never changed his spots, yet most of us are happy to tolerate his outbursts during and after nearly every game!

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