Wembley, Here We Come!!

Well, what a night! Yesterday evening saw the second leg of Swindon Town’s play-off semi-final against Charlton Athletic. Swindon had won the first leg 2-1 on Friday night at The County Ground and so travelled to London needing just a draw to book their place in the final at Wembley.

I was unable to travel to the game myself, but it was televised live on Sky Sports, so I scooted round to my mum’s house to watch the excitement unfold. I won’t bore you all with all the details but suffice to say that it was a very, very dramatic evening’s entertainment that had my blood pressure going through the roof! Close to the end of the match Swindon were 2-0 down, had lost their goalkeeper to injury in the first minute and had seen their captain sent off leaving them with ten men. At that stage all hope looked lost.

But this Swindon side are nothing if not battlers, and a very well taken goal levelled the overall scores at 3-3 and pushed the game into 30 minutes of extra-time. No more goals were scored during that time and so the tie had to be settled on a penalty shoot-out. Now, Swindon’s record in penalty shoot-outs is a little like England’s, ie they don’t win ‘em!! But last night, under the greatest of pressure, all 5 Town players scored their penalties and, as Charlton missed one of theirs, Swindon incredibly won the tie and secured their place at Wembley a week on Saturday.

Town players celebrate their win

So, Swindon will be deserted in 11 days time – a burglar’s paradise! It has been 17 years since Town last played at the home of English football and the recollections of that day are still very vivid. Hopefully this month will see the creation of some more good memories!