DAN THE FAN: Skipper Thompson's midweek return shows why he is so crucial

When Nathan Thompson was wrongly sent-off against Yeovil, every fan knew it would be costly going into two home games, and they were right as no-one could fill the hole in defence left by the club captain.

Both Jordan Turnbull and Jack Stephens are good defenders but their shortcomings were highlighted without Thompson alongside them.

Unfortunately the form of our captain won’t go unnoticed by other football league clubs.

As we’ve seen already this season every player at Town has his price, let’s hope no one comes close to Nathan’s value in January.

Once again Brad Smith’s absence was painfully obvious last Saturday, with Amari’i Bell struggling to match the talents of the Australian.

Last week the club signed Harry Toffolo on a month’s loan, bought to help Bell as a wingback, but with Toffolo playing as a left back or centre back so far in his career, it’ll be interesting to see how quickly he can learn his new role.

Looking at Town’s forward line, it seems Mark Cooper has found three strikers who are more than capable of leading the club to success this season.

Over the past week a lot of talk in the media has been surrounding Mario Balotelli, a player who arrived at Liverpool with thousands of fans hopes on his shoulders, but has so far failed to deliver.

The current mood towards underperforming Balotelli is something that’s been experienced many times by Town fans over the years.

Jimmy Gauld, Tom Jenkins, Ray Treacy, Keith Scott and Andy Mutch are just some names from the past that have failed to live up to expectations.

But none of those players comes close to the biggest striking failures to ever play for Town.

In 2005 Sam Parkin was sold to Ipswich, and Andy King was given the job of replacing Town’s top scorer for the past three seasons, enter Tony Thorpe and Jamie Cureton.

Ex-Bristol City striker Tony Thorpe had goalscoring pedigree behind him scoring goals at City, Luton Town and QPR before joining Town.

But his time at Swindon only lasted six months, after making 10 appearances scoring just the one goal; he agreed to end his contract.

But by far the biggest failure I’ve seen at Town has to be Jamie Cureton.

On paper Cureton was an ideal signing for Town, scoring 118 goals for local rivals Bristol Rovers and Reading over a seven-year period.

But it was apparent after just a few games that he wasn’t fit to clean Sam Parkin’s boots, let alone try and fill them in the team.

After a loan spell at Colchester, Cureton returned and was given a chance by new manager Iffy Onuora to help keep Town in League One.

But despite a small glimpse of his talents, his game was littered with many spurned opportunities, most notably away at Yeovil and in a must win game against Bristol City at Ashton Gate.

Back in 2014, and the club has no such trouble as Michael Smith, Jonathan Obika and Andy Williams continue to score goals on a regular basis.

Michael Smith has easily managed to prove the doubters wrong this season scoring 11 goals in 16 games, with Williams and Obika contributing 12 between them.

Lets hope they can all add to their tallies this weekend as Town face Milton Keynes FC.

Follow me on Twitter @danwjonson

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