Swindon Town captain Nathan Thompson departs the club for Portsmouth

Swindon captain Nathan Thompson has turned down a new contract at the club in order to pen a two-year deal at Portsmouth.

Chester-born Thompson leaves the club he has been at for over a decade, after signing for Swindon as a 12-year-old.

He signed professional terms at the club in 2008 and went onto make almost 200 appearances for the Robins, and it would have been a lot more, were it not for a regular battle with various injuries.

Thompson had nine outings as captain in the 2013-14 season as Swindon finished 8th in League One and he was made skipper officially the following campaign after Darren Ward departed the club.

In his first season as captain Swindon got to the League One play-off final, but Thompson had to be withdrawn as early as the fifth minute due to injury as Preston won 4-0 at Wembley.

The next two seasons were not as successful for the club though as they narrowly avoided the drop in the 2015-16 campaign and last season they did fall through the trap door of relegation.

Thompson missed the 2-1 loss at home to Scunthorpe that confined Swindon to League Two through injury but did enter the field after the full-time whistle in tears, and waved a goodbye to the fans that were still in the ground.

Portsmouth have beaten Ipswich, Rotherham, QPR and Charlton to the signing of Thompson, who leaves for Fratton Park on a free transfer as his contract at Swindon is due to expire on June 30.