To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Swindon Town's 1969 League Cup triumph, all week Adver Sport will be publishing a series of stories to mark the momentous occasion.

HIS two Wembley goals may ensure he forever goes down in Swindon Town folklore, but Don Rogers says his prevailing memory of the 1969 League Cup final is simply that his side won the trophy.

Following a mammoth effort from Rogers and his team-mates during the initial 90 minutes against Arsenal, the then 23-year-old struck twice in extra time to cap off a 3-1 victory and secure Town’s only major domestic trophy.

Dressed all in white, Town saw off early pressure from the favourites to take a shock lead through Roger Smart in the 35th minute – an advantage they held until five minutes from time when Bobby Gould headed home for Arsenal.

But Swindon’s mercurial left-winger came into his own in the extra half-an-hour, scoring twice to help bring the cup back to Wiltshire.

Rogers reminisced about the week leading up to the famous game, stating his overwhelming emotion in the build-up was excitement as he felt he and many of his team-mates may never get to experience a cup final again in their careers.

Rogers said: “You can’t talk about the day without talking about the week leading up to it.

“It was just excitement, more than anything else, playing at Wembley in front of 100,000 people.

“If you’d have thought about that before you went out onto the pitch, you would have worried yourself sick, but as soon as we got on the pitch it was great.

“My memories of the day were winning. When I scored my second goal, I didn’t worry about anything else, I just turned around and said:‘We’ve won’.

“It didn’t matter about anything else, it didn’t matter about what people would say about the game, it only mattered that, as professionals, we’d won.”

While the final score fell in Swindon’s favour, Rogers says it may not have ended so cheerily had it not been for the heroic exploits of Town’s back-line and, in particular, their goalkeeper.

Town faced a barrage of Arsenal pressure throughout and only the sterling efforts of stopper Peter Downsborough prevented the First Division side from taking an early lead before Smart wrestled momentum back towards Danny Williams’ men with the opening goal.

Rogers said Swindon were always confident of being able to spring a surprise, especially after they had seen off three top teams in Burnley, Coventry City and Division Two champions Derby County in the earlier rounds.

He said: “We always thought we had a chance because that side was a very confident side and we were capable – we knew that.

“We always thought we could win the game. We never went to Wembley and thought we were going to get beat, that’s for sure. I don’t think any team ever does, no matter who you’re playing.

“We’d had such a good season and we’d beaten three First Division sides anyway, so we knew we could beat teams of that calibre, and we were so well-organised.

“We had such a good defence, that was the main thing. A really good defence that could handle anything – and it did.

“Our defenders were brilliant and so was Peter Downsborough. Shots right at him, he’d save them all day, but what Peter didn’t want was balls coming in from wide areas. Anything in front, he’d stop it.

“Had the award existed at the time, I would have given him man of the match. He definitely deserved it.”

While most people dream of experiencing the euphoria of netting on the hallowed turf, Rogers felt it was more of an obligation to do his job well for his team.

The 73-year-old compared his signature moment to his modern-day peers and says they should remember football is a team game and winning can only be achieved with the help of the other players.

He said: “I was quite a laid-back player anyway. Scoring a goal, that was my job.

“They annoy me these days when all they do is run three miles round the pitch after scoring – that’s their job. It was my job to score goals.

“I don’t think I ran anywhere after scoring at Wembley, I just put my arms up because I was that chuffed – it was 3-1 and game over.

“Nowadays, they seem to only think of themselves when they score. My first thought was to share the moment with my team-mates.”