A HOST of former Swindon Town players and staff will be taking part in a behind-closed-doors charity match this Sunday (May 2) – raising funds for the Prospect Hospice on behalf of Alan McLoughlin and his family.

The inaugural Loathed Strangers’ Shield match (KO 12pm) will feature a range of former Town players & management including: Rhys Evans, Ian Herring, Matt Heywood, Brian Howard, Noel Hunt, Jerel Ifil, Sam Parkin, Jamie Pitman, Phil Smith, Richie Wellens plus Honor Fraser and Gipsy Viveash of Swindon Town Women.

Several special guests have also agreed to take part in the encounter, which will see a 90-minute match played at the County Ground which will be officiated by former Premier League referee Lee Probert, who took charge of the 2014 FA Cup Final.

Loathed Strangers creator, Rich Pullen said he had planned to organise a charity match for the end of the season anyway, but after seeing McLoughlin’s recent statement on Twitter surrounding his cancer returning, the podcast chief knew he wanted to help out a club legend at the same time.

Pullen said: “It’s very much been a joint effort. I’ve been organising it with Chris Tanner, and Danny Lee and Steve Hooper at Swindon Town.

“Many of the players are members of the podcast or they’ve been on the podcast at some point. It was a case of trying to keep things as local as we could, but we managed to secure Richie Wellens who is bringing a few friends along as well.”

There is no public access to the game due to current Covid restrictions, but the match will be streamed live on Rich Banyard’s Swindon-Town-FC.co.uk YouTube channel.

To make a donation to the Prospect Hospice, please go to www.justgiving.com/fundraising/strangersshield.