1
ITALIAN JOBS
If beating Arsenal in the 1969
League Cup Final as a third-tier side
wasn’t fun enough, Swindon took
things further. Barred from the Fairs
Cup because they weren’t in the top
flight, the short-lived Anglo-Italian
League Cup was created for them
instead – and led to the Robins
demolishing Coppa Italia champs
Roma 5-2 on aggregate, following
a thumping 4-0 win at the County
Ground. The next year, they won
the Anglo-Italian Cup, twice seeing
off Juventus before rocketing into
a 3-0 lead over Napoli in the final.
Incensed home fans went on the
riot, forcing an abandonment.2
JOHN BE GOOD
No one has mustered more
Football League appearances for
one club than John Trollope, the
Town icon who played 770 times
from 1960-80. The left-back made
368 consecutive appearances up
to August 1968, when a broken
arm finally sidelined him. Wuss.3
THE HUNDRED CLUB
Swindon have only ever spent
a single season in English football’s
big league – but it ended with them
becoming the first top-flight team
for 30 years to concede 100 goals.
Getting trounced 7-1 at Newcastle
was a particular dismal mark, and
they leaked at least five goals on
another five occasions, but their
points tally wasn’t awful: per game,
17 other Premier League sides have
performed worse (before 2021-22).4
FRENCH FANCIES
“Dubonnet Cup champions,
you’ll never sing that...” True, if
that’s aimed at anyone other than
Fulham and, er, Clapton Orient fans.
In 1910, Swindon headed to Paris
for a new, annual exhibition clash
designed to drum up interest in
France’s local leagues. So naturally
their opponents were Barnsley, who
they beat 2-1 to land a whopping
trophy (some 50kg) that, like all
the greats, went missing in 1992.
It was eventually rediscovered five
years later thanks to a local tip-off.CLAIMS TO FAME
SWInDON
TAMPLIn: A TERRIBLE TRAIL
Eccentric former Billericay Town and Romford owner Glenn Tamplin quit football
for good in March last year – and now his two old sides have both been relegatednOn-LEAGUE nEWS
When millionaire Glenn Tamplin
first got into club ownership, he
promised that the only way was up.
But after his former clubs Billericay
Town and Romford both suffered
relegation this season, his legacy
is looking decidedly less skywards.
Although the owner-cum-manager
has been away from football for over
a year since leaving Romford in the
middle of 2021 to move abroad, his
exes have floundered in his absence.
Billericay lost their Conference South
status with defeat to Ebbsfleet on the
penultimate day of the season, while
Romford conceded an eye-watering
139 goals in 38 matches en route
to finishing bottom of the Isthmian
League North with only 13 points. It’s
not exactly how Tamplin had dreamt
his barmy non-league life.
The steel tycoon shot to fame in
2016 when he took over seventh-tier
Billericay and splashed out to bring
ex-Premier League stars Jermaine
Pennant, Paul Konchesky and Jamie
O’Hara to the Blues’ 3,500-capacity
New Lodge ground. And while there’s
nothing off about ambition, Tamplin’s
eccentric methods meant he often
courted the wrong sort of attention.
The Dagenham native had installed
himself as Billericay manager shortlyafter buying the club, and soon went
viral with a bizarre pre-match ritual
that involved imploring his team to
belt out R Kelly’s The World’s Greatest
(accompanied by demands to “SHUT
YOUR EYES” while doing so). But that
was only the tip of the iceberg.
As part of a £2 million renovation of
New Lodge, Tamplin commissioned
the dressing room walls to be painted
with a pride of lions chasing their prey
to inspire his team’s killer instincts,
while the tunnel was daubed with
sharks and rough seas. The golden
eagle figurine was a nice touch, too.
But if that wasn’t enough artwork,
a giant mural featuring an image of
Tamplin in bed with his wife, receiving
a message from God telling him to
buy a football club, adorned a wall
outside. It was quite the makeover.
While it was unorthodox, Tamplin’s
approach led Billericay to promotion,
the FA Cup First Round for only the
fourth time in club history, and two
Isthmian League Cup wins. He also
engaged the local community by
offering free tickets to disabled fans
and hiring seven pastors to provide
counselling for visiting supporters.
Predictably, however, Tamplin’s
behaviour became even more erratic
when things began to slip. In February2018, he reportedly asked his players
to give up a week’s wages after they
lost three matches on the spin, but
sacked himself as manager when the
request tanked – only to reverse that
decision two days later. Two months
on, Tamplin recorded a video where
he did resign for good. By this time,
he’d become a figure of ridicule and
put the club up for sale.
It wasn’t the end, though: instead,
Tamplin bought Essex neighbours
Romford in late 2019. The COVID-19
outbreak made his stay relatively
short, but it wasn’t without incident:
within 24 hours of taking over, he’d
replaced their manager of 15 years,
Paul Martin – with himself – and also
signed 15 players who he promptly
asked to call him ‘Daddy Pig’.
Despite listing off a series of lofty
ambitions for Romford and a string of
incentives for players, such as £6,500
goodie bags of designer clothes, the
pandemic severely affected Tamplin’s
plans and he quit football for good in
March 2021. Without his money for
2021-22, Romford suffered dismally- in April, they lost 13-0 to Canvey
Island, having gone down 8-0 at Bury
Town a month earlier.
Maybe up wasn’t the only way...
Chris Evans
ROMFORD COnCEDED
139 GOALS AS THEY
FInISHED BOTTOM OF
THE ISTHMIAn nORTH
AROUnD THE
GROUnDSFourFourTwo July 2022 89