TOP FIVE: Swindon Town home wins of 2016

Swindon Town have their last game at the County Ground of 2016 on Saturday so Total Sport have looked back on the top five home wins of the year.

The year 2016 will be remembered worldwide for Brexit, President Donald Trump, celebrity deaths and Tim Sherwood's arrival at Swindon as Director of Football but it will be a forgettable one for Town fans.

Football wise, 2016 began with the Robins fighting to avoid relegation from League One, which they achieved, and it will end the same way too with the club 19th at the time of writing. 

Swindon won ten of their 19 home league matches of his calendar year and Total Sport have, just about, managed to rank the top five, culminating in what we think is the best one.

5) Swindon Town 3-0 Shrewsbury Town (May 8)

On the face of it, this was an end-of-season dead rubber between two teams towards the wrong end of the table that just did enough to survive relegation but for some young Robins it was a fantastic day in their career.

Will Henry, who had marked his professional debut with a penalty save at Oldham a few weeks earlier, started in goal and kept a clean sheet while fellow youth academy graduate Jordan Young came off the bench to score his first professional goal.

Nicky Ajose netted a brace too in what sadly turned out to be his last match in Swindon colours. Nice way to sign off, though. 

4) Swindon Town 3-0 Rochdale (October 18)

Three home league losses on the bounce and without a domestic win in four, optimism going into Swindon's home clash with Rochdale was low. 

Darnell Furlong settled early jitters though with a super goal on the turn to give Swindon the lead and six minutes later Nathan Delfouneso netted his first league strike for Swindon to ease tensions around the County Ground.

Lawrence Vigouroux brilliantly saved an Ian Henderson penalty two minutes into the second half to ensure that Rochdale did not get back into the game before captain Nathan Thompson rounded off a thorougly enjoyable Tuesday night with a well-taken header to earn a comfortable victory for the hosts.

3) Swindon Town 4-2 Southend United (January 9)

Town's opening game of the year could have been a much different story. While the 2016-17 season has mostly seen comments from Luke Williams suggesting the players lack mental strength, that certainly could not be said in the early stages of 2016 (more on that later).

Southend raced into a 2-0 lead inside 13 minutes at SN1 which sparked moans, groans and the odd boo around the ground.

Two goals in three minutes towards the end of the first half from Ajose and Jon Obika got Swindon level though and another one each from the two forwards got the Reds a well-earned three points.

2) Swindon Town 3-0 Charlton Athletic (November 12)

New director of football, new hope, new optimism, new change of fortunes? It started that way, anyway.

Sherwood's appointment brought about it a resounding 3-0 win over Charlton thanks to a Morgan Fox own goal, along with strikes from Lloyd Jones and Johnny Goddard.

Momentum has not followed but it may be a sign of what we can expect post-January once Sherwood has some of his own players to fit his ideas. 

1) Swindon Town 4-3 Crewe Alexandra (16 January)

Remember that never-say-die attitude at the beginning of January we mentioned? Just a week after the Southend turnaround Swindon were at it again with an even more impressive comeback against Crewe.

All seemed well when Ajose fired Swindon into a 14th-minute lead but a Brad Inman brace and a Ryan Colclough effort inbetween had the would-be-relegated side 3-1 up at half-time.

Obika got one back two minutes after the break, Ben Nugent put through his own net five minutes later but it was that man Ajose who was the hero with the last-gasp winner to complete the three-goal reverse.