I've only been to a handful of Town matches since I joined the Adver 10 months ago, and most of them have been pretty dismal until I watched them play the Cobblers last Saturday, writes guest columnist Sam Wheeler.

I used to wonder what on earth possessed the good people of Swindon to shell out £15 to watch a team sorely lacking in quality get beaten every week.

It was with some trepidation that I realised that I would have to help out with the paper's STFC coverage for five weeks while the Sports Editor was inconvenienced by illness and a fortnight's 'working' holiday in New York.

I had previously seen Town draw lamely with Colchester and lose feebly to Tranmere.

I was there when they beat the same Merseyside opposition in the league last season, but that victory was the footballing equivalent of a beheaded chicken running around the yard Jim Quinn's side had long accepted their relegation fate.

This season, all the 'big names' have left. Only three of the regular starting XI under Andy King played under Quinn.

The team have won a few more games this season than last, but they are still in the bottom four.

So it was with a heavy heart that I approached my assignment.

However, Town have grown on me. Maybe it is because they have won two of the last three games, and showed some real fighting spirit at Northampton.

Maybe it's because I am a footballing orphan, brought up in Ireland where there isn't a professional club for hundreds of miles.

I'm one of those charlatans who supports Liver-pool, even though I have never been to Anfield, but I have always wanted a local team to love and support through thick and thin or even through thin and thin.

If I had been born here, I guarantee I would be a diehard Town fan.

The third factor is the fantastic attitude of the travelling fans at Northampton's little Sixfields stadium last Saturday.

There were 806 of them filling the visitors' stand and they generated the sort of atmosphere that made you want to abandon all pretences of neutrality and dash from the press box to join them.

They provided a great backing to the team, and the players clearly responded. Whatever the fans thought of Andy King's selection or of the players, nobody booed when names were read out and the players affected clearly improved.

Sure, they howled their disapproval when passes went astray, but nobody expects or wants polite applause at errors.

If that level of intensity could be recreated at home, people would come flooding back.

The problem is that, while the most impassioned, noisiest fans are thrown together at away games, they are spread apart at the County Ground.

There were less than 6,000 people at Northampton's little ground on Saturday, but it felt like twice as much because it is so compact.

The County Ground seems cavernous and empty in comparison.

God knows what it will feel like with 5,000 in the proposed "Brady-ium".