Simon Ferry celebrates extended loan deal with starring display (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Simon Ferry celebrates extended loan deal with starring display

10:08am Wednesday 25th November 2009

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TUESDAY was a good night to be a Swindon fan. The high-flying, big-spending Terriers swaggered into town on the back of five straight victories but left with their tails docked.

On an evening when the fierce, swirling wind made playing meaningful football a laughable prospect, Huddersfield were simply broken by the immovable force that was Swindon.

Chairman Andrew Fitton announced before the game that a deal had been done to keep loanee Simon Ferry until the end of the season and the diminutive Celtic midfielder responded by putting in a towering performance to snatch the man of the match accolade.

Mind you, any one of five or six Town players must have been in the running for that gong.

The fantastic job they did to contain and compete with a menacing, wind-assisted Huddersfield in the first half was underlined when the Yorkshire side proved incapable of playing their fast-flowing game when conditions were against them after the break.

And then, of course, there was Charlie Austin, who now lives at Angel Ridge in Swindon, the development where he once worked as a bricklayer.

Austin proved a match winner for the second time in four days – on his first two starts for the club – before going off with cramp soon after the hour mark. A cult hero is born and by next season, when the ex-part-timer is fully up to speed, what a talent he could be.

The term ‘assist’ doesn’t begin to do justice to the contribution of Lescinel Jean-Francois towards Austin’s winner.

Not only did he mug a fast-breaking Anthony Pilkington just inside the Huddersfield half, he then curled a ball to die for over the head of the centre back and right on to Austin’s toes.

It was the sort of telling cross that the fans who showed up to see Swindon Town’s exit from the FA Youth Cup the previous Wednesday night against Leyton Orient saw in abundance.

Young Matt Barnes has the reputation of being the best crosser of a ball in the club and didn’t we see why. He must have put 15 exquisite crosses into the box and not once did his strikers get on the end of them.

Not far behind him came England U16 starlet Alex Henshall, who did similar good work on the other flank when he came on with half a hour to go. The future of wing play at the club looks rosy.

Orient had perhaps three players – captain and goalscorer Harry Beautyman, centre back Cestor Mike and keeper Jake Giddens – who are closer to league standard than anyone in the Swindon U18s at the moment, but the kids had enough of the game to have seen off the Londoners.

More good news is that chairman Fitton hopes to have selected his preferred partners in the County Ground makeover “before Christmas”. There are currently five stadium developers companies on the short list.

He also claims the club is in ‘cordial’ negotiations with St Modwen Properties over the £1.475million loan which was last week the subject of a Guardian scare story. And, who knows, we may have a new face or two in before the weekend’s FA Cup visit to non league Wrexham on Saturday, which should surely leave us in the running for a potential big fish in the third round draw.

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