DOES anyone know the Portuguese word for time-wasters'?

For months, Best Holdings had insisted the takeover of Swindon Town was virtually a done deal. Then it went suspiciously quiet.

Suddenly it is adios to Jim Little, Jose Veiga, Rufus Brevett (and maybe striker Ibon Arrieta).

Presumably, the black hole of debt, otherwise known as Swindon Town FC, has frightened them off. They can now take their reported £6m worth of investment elsewhere.

Already, another mystery investor' has allegedly thrown some money at the club to help with its immediate financial burdens.

All fans are sick to the back teeth with this sorry and unsettling saga. Short term remedies to keep just one creditor, the Inland Revenue, from issuing legal proceedings, are not what they want to hear about.

One man probably laughing his socks off at the exit of Best Holdings is manager Paul Sturrock, who couldn't hide his unease over the proposed plan for former Benfica manager Veiga to come in above him in the Swindon footballing hierarchy.

How ironic that just when the team is looking the most potent it has been potent in years, the club itself is in the most parlous state imaginable.

There was some good news this week with the return from long-term injury of both Barry Corr and Andy Nicholas, who both scored in Tuesday's 3-1 reserve win against Exeter.

Big Bazza' is going to have to be patient, however. The long-backed, injury-prone Irishman was the catalyst for Swindon's promotion push last spring. Now he finds himself well down the strikers' pecking order with Messrs Cox and Paynter firmly in possession of the shirts.

No wonder Littlewoods Pools is no longer the country's flutter of choice.

When matches are postponed, the Pools Panel - ex-professional experts, supposedly -- meet to decide what the scores might have been for the purposes of the pools coupons.

Swindon have kept one clean sheet all season. They have scored nine goals in their last two home league games. So how exactly did the Pools Panel come up with a forecast 0-0 draw for the postponed Oldham game on Sunday?