‘This is a hugely important appointment at a significant moment in Swindon’s recent history and we are delighted to appoint a football man of Kevin’s calibre as our new manager.
‘This is a clear message that the new board is determined to drive on for promotion this season and continue to try and bring success to Swindon.
‘Kevin has fantastic football credentials as a double-winner with Liverpool during his playing days and he is an excellent coach.
‘He has great connections with top players and he is a proper football man. We have every faith for Kevin now to lead Swindon from the front at a pivotal moment in the campaign.
‘It is a new start for Kevin and for our new board of directors and we move forward together with every confidence’
In acting so quickly, with the team having taken a solitary point from home matches against Preston North End and struggling Bury under the temporary charge of players Darren Ward and Tommy Miller, McCrory might yet have saved the aspirations of the Robins’ fans.
In only four matches, the understated MacDonald has already indicated that his might be a decidedly astute recruitment.
After a late win at Coventry City, a point earned against a flying Walsall team, and a narrow defeat to now second placed Brentford, MacDonald’s charges took full advantage of being able to show nationwide viewers that they have not been too damaged by the loss of their firebrand boss or the substantial boardroom upheaval at the club.
In front of the Sky Television cameras, and playing at in-form Yeovil Town’s Huish Park, Swindon at once demonstrated many of the attributes that will be needed to prevail in one of the tightest promotion battles of any season in any league and quashed any notion that without the presence of the talismanic Di Canio decline might take hold.
Wes Foderingham – a man hitherto best known for a public falling out with Di Canio when substituted after 22 minutes of an early term encounter at Preston – is an assured and commanding presence in goal.
Central defenders Darren Ward and Aiden Flint possess a perfect combination of knowhow, strength, and pace, while the experienced Jay McEevley at left-back is complemented by his livewire young counterpart on the right, the exceptional Nathan Thompson.
Adam Rooney is effective at spearheading an attack which has the trickery of Gary Roberts and Andy Williams operating either side of the Irishman.
The industry of midfield triumvirate, Alan McCormack, Simon Ferry, and Tommy Miller will not be exceeded by any foe – the trio all being equally capable of disrupting opposition rhythm and springing their own side onto the front foot.
Introduced from the bench at Yeovil were the enterprising Italian attacker Raffaele De Vita, effervescent young buck midfielder Luke Rooney, and the formidable lower league striker James Collins.
A 2-0 triumph in Somerset was richly deserved for a team which played with a definite identity and purpose. Most welcome was the sight of MacDonald regularly cajoling and organising his unit, all of whom were working tirelessly for their new manager.
A week is said to be a long time in football. At Swindon Town it is an eternity. What had looked potentially a charge through two divisions was agonisingly close to unravelling in the relative blink of an eye.
Unlike the unhappiest period of the club’s colourful past – the 1990 punishment – a potential seismic collapse of hope at the County Ground looks to have been averted by the intervention of McCrory and the subsequent foresight he has displayed when fulfilling his first key duty – that of appointing a new manager.
It is a stern assignment that awaits MacDonald – one made even more onerous by a current transfer embargo, in effect while the football league satisfies itself concerning issues surrounding the recent takeover.
Nevertheless, this is a club that has more than once proven a knack for hiring the right man at the right time. Furthermore, supporters of Swindon Town need not feel the fearsome hand of past skeletons on their shoulders. Instead, they can wake from the cold sweat of a brief nightmare, and emerge fresh into a genuinely encouraging, and possibly sparkling, future.
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