After Swindon Town’s incredible comeback under Ian Holloway in 2024–2025, has expressed his opinion that the team should try to get promoted the following season.
After a poor start to the season, many Robins supporters were afraid of being relegated to the National League. Although their senior manager made several blunders in his first few weeks at the club, his expertise has been essential in guiding them to safety.
The Wiltshire team has been slipping down the ladder over the previous three years, and League Two has recently become a division that no one at the County Ground wanted to call home.
Since the former Blackpool and QPR manager took over, Swindon has been among the fourth tier’s strongest teams, and Holloway has been able to control the flow of frustration, raising expectations for the upcoming campaign.
The Robins’ recent comeback has been impressive, and if they had maintained this level of play throughout the season, they would have been in the running for the League Two play-offs.
However, the club’s top priority was to stay in the division and avoid becoming the second Premier League team to leave the EFL, as Oldham Athletic did in 2022.
In an exclusive interview with Football League World, Don Goodman has endorsed Swindon to play a role in Holloway’s push for promotion the following season, building on his outstanding 2024–2025 campaign.
“I think you’d have to back him to get Swindon Town towards the top end of League Two next season, given what Ian Holloway’s accomplished in a fairly short amount of time,” he told FLW.
“I think I saw an interview with him recently where there are lots of players whose contracts are up and that he was going to be having a really good look at who he wanted to keep and where he felt the squad needed improving.”
“So yes, is the answer to your question,” Goodman said in closing. You would have to support him to do well the following season, in my opinion, considering what he has accomplished in a relatively short period of time at Swindon in terms of completely changing that team, that club, and those outcomes.”
Swindon need to stop the rut of the last few years
Swindon has not had a good decade in the 2020s, and fans will be hoping that the squad is now beginning to turn the turnaround after declining season after season.
| Swindon Town last five league finishes (TransferMarkt) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Season | League | P. |
| 2019/20 | League Two | 2nd |
| 2020/21 | League One | 23rd |
| 2021/22 | League Two | 6th |
| 2022/23 | League Two | 10th |
| 2023/24 | League Two | 19th |
The fact that Holloway led Blackpool to the Premier League during his tenure there demonstrated his extraordinary shrewdness as a manager.
The Robins will greatly benefit from this because, although other teams will have more money and star power in their roster for the upcoming season, most do not have a coach with the 62-year-old’s level of expertise, and in the end, that might make the difference.
