With the last few years having seen a rapid turnover of managers at the County Ground, I thought it might be time to reflect on the longest-serving manager in the Club’s history, Sam Allen. His length of service puts him well inside the top ten longest in the history of Professional Football in this country according to Jeff Sterling.

Allen came to Swindon from West Bromwich Albion as a white-collar worker for the railways and his association with Swindon began as a Committee member when Swindon were still an amateur team. When Swindon became a limited company, Allen was one of the founding Board Members.

I suspect that not being self-employed, like most of the Board, the need to earn a regular income, probably explains why, when Len Dodson retired as Secretary, he became a paid employee. A couple of minute books from the turn of the century survive and show that one of the tasks for the weekly Board Meeting was to select the side for the following Saturday. By the time Swindon were enjoying their golden era winning two Southern League titles and reaching two FA Cup finals between 1910 and 1914, I suspect Allen, who became Secretary-Manager, had taken this task over and if the team was selected at a Board meeting, that was very much a rubber stamp operation.

By the end of World War One, Allen, was also on the Southern League Management Committee and was instrumental in that League being transformed into Division Three South, in 1921, when Swindon finished fourth in its inaugural season.

The respect in which he was held by the players is shown by the fact that they presented him with a beautiful silver cup. He remained as Secretary-Manager until 1933 when a couple of bad seasons saw Swindon having to apply for re-election. Former Welsh international, Ted Vizard was appointed as manager but Sam remained on as Secretary.

During World War Two the County Ground was requisitioned by the War Office but Allen would regularly walk down the hill to the ground to see what was happening and that club equipment was not being damaged. It was during the War in 1941 that he received the Football League’s Long Service Award. Nominally for 25 years service, Allen had done nearly 50 in various capacities.

By this time he was regarded as being a bit surly and autocratic, a trait perhaps displayed by a form the club had to submit to Companies House. There were neatly ruled lines for each director’s name and nationality to be entered. Allen had scrawled across it “The directors of this company are and always have been British.”

Unfortunately, he didn’t survive to see League Football return to the County Ground, dying on New Year’s Day 1946. He was remembered long after his passing and his grave was restored by various supporters’ groups in 2014 and a service was held to mark it at St Saviours Church.

It was almost 20 years after Allen’s passing that Bert Head, in his seventh season with the club, achieved something Allen never had - promotion to the Second tier.

Looking at a programme from early in the 1960-1 Season. I was amazed to see that in the Swindon line-up, no fewer than nine of the team played in the promotion-winning team of 1962-3.

Today, I suspect two seasons finishing in the bottom half of the table, which Swindon did in both 1960-61 and 1961-62 seasons would have seen Bert Head sacked, Maurice Owen signing a contract with a different club to get a decent signing on fee to cushion him in retirement, while youngsters like John Trollope, Terry Wollen and Cliff Jackson not offered new contracts and seeing out their playing days with Chippenham, Salisbury or Clanfield. Others like Hunt or Summerbee would have signed for new clubs. Sticking with them over two seasons of failure saw 50 years of waiting ended when Roger Smart, another local youngster, scored a late goal to beat Shrewsbury and clinch promotion with a game to spare in 1963.

Could it happen today? I think not. Although we are not a quarter way through the 21st century Swindon have already had 26 managers, way more than the 20 they had for the whole of the 20th century. Impatience across football means that anything less than a top-half finish in one season, never mind two, means a manager is out.

In my book one of the reasons Head, the manager from 1958 to 1965, survived was that he adopted a youth policy, which not only saved the directors money but won favour from the fans, in articles in the local press, he wrapped himself in the Swindon flag. “Good football even if it costs points,” he claimed after a draw against Bristol City. What Swindon supporter’s heart would not have swelled with pride that we were holding the Third Division aristocracy, England international John Atyeo and all, to a draw with local lads they had played alongside on the school playground? “I would rather be a Corporal in Wellington’s army than a Colonel in that Portuguese lot,” said one of the Duke’s soldiers.

When we have a manager who can engender belief in the fans and get them to realise results depend just as much on their support and encouragement and that Swindon is a club in which to be proud, then we may have a chance of success.

In 1969, Swindon defeated Arsenal to win the League Cup. Why? A dreadful Wembley pitch? An inspired display of goalkeeping by Peter Downsborough? Superior fitness? The brilliance of Don Rogers? All played their part, but for me, Geoffrey Green summed it up best as being “A day on which all the wealth of Arsenal could not match the gold of Swindon’s courage.”

Today courage is needed from those off the pitch to give youngsters a chance to show what they can do and on it by players confident that fans will forgive a local lad who runs his heart out in a way they will not forgive expensive hired guns.