Ian Holloway says Swindon’s poor form could be down to training ground being HAUNTED

Ian Holloway says Swindon’s poor run of form this season could be down to the League Two side’s training ground being HAUNTED.

Holloway, 61, heard rumblings that there were “some strange things happening” after Ollie Clarke ruptured a tendon in his ankle whilst training.

Ian also added he’d get his wife to “cleanse the area” with sage as it is close to an ancient burial site. Have a listen of the interview in full below, it’s simply brilliant…

Interviewer: “Ian Holloway is now with us. So, firstly, what are the what are the biggest things that you you’ve learned from that match? ”

Ian: “I’ve learned that’s the longest question. You’ve done it. Thank you. I was just chewing something. I never sounded terrible to be on the radio chewing something, so I apologise. What I’ve learned is we didn’t compete well enough in the first half, and they were so competitive, and they turned us, and they got on us, and we lost so many first headers. It was horrifying.

“So I let them have it at half time, the team that I picked, I felt we would be good enough to get down and when it drops, play around them because they man mark you everywhere. And we just lost the first contacts everywhere. And it wasn’t good enough.

“So, unfortunately, I had to take McGurk off, weren’t in the right game for him. I love him. I think he’s been brilliant for me. I wanna I felt we could play around him, and I had to change it. I almost had to put Smith back in the back three to win some headers because he was winning his headers. He’s getting frustrated at us back there, but it’s about the rest of them telling them, encourage them to go and win them, and we don’t say anything.

“So I’ve absolutely ripped them, ripped their ears off, ripped their face off, told them how I feel, and they’ve seen my teeth today because I wasn’t good enough. But second half, it was. So and this is what I gotta try and do. This is what I gotta try and realise.

“And every week in this division, you will have a different challenge, and we need to stand up, man up, and compete for those things. And the size of our boys back there, we should be able to win some headers, But I don’t think they were being helped. They were shouting encouragement as they’re going for it, and it’s a bit of a lack of confidence. They won last week, 3-0, we lost.

“So I can understand, but really deep down, that ain’t good enough. And if we keep doing that, I’m gonna have to get somebody else who will win some headers. I don’t wanna put Harry Smith back there because he won every header up up that end. So it’s a very simple game sometimes.

“So we’ll be working on that, have a guess, something they’re gonna have sore foreheads, you know? They will because you can lose those and that many and hope to hang on. We were lucky that they weren’t further ahead, but what a fantastic reaction in the second half. What a wonderful goal. What an exciting game, and I tried to win it. If our fans won’t have, I’m sure they left seeing that I was trying to win the game.

“And that’s what we’ve gotta do. We’ve gotta win more games. And I prefer to do it now, straight away, because then we’d all feel a bit better. But do you know what? We got the bottom of the league. Or if we are, who knows? Next week, we gotta do the same again, but we gotta do it better. And that’s what we’ll be doing. We’re gonna take everything out, polish it up, and be brutally honest with them, because they’ve had some for me today. That one good enough. First half.”

Interviewer: “We’ll come to the good stuff in, in a minute, but the is there set these goals you can see that just symptomatic of not winning head is they are the there are other problems you’ve got to…”

Ian: “Well, there’s other problems because we I tried something different and some people were marking, the other people were doing areas, and we let the first their first go, the fellow just run right in front of the two doing the areas, and we let him go. He should have been in front of him. We’d have cleared that. If it was a eyeball, those two were triggered to do it, but you had to mark your man all the way across there. So but it is I mean, did he mean that? I’m not sure he meant that. Just got his heel on it, but that killed us and then it’s horrible when you see people who could do better than that, not do it well enough.

“But in the second half we did. We won a few more, we got there, the the changes that we made and and and the people I put on, they came on with the right heart. They came on with the right spirit. They weren’t sulking, and out they went.

“And do you know what? In the end, it was a good performance. Right? I’m much happier with it at the end than I was at half time, but that’s what you get sometimes and I felt we could have won it. With the two chances that, Glatz had, normally, he’d take one of them. The header down that end I missed the other one I had to can’t tell you. Anyway, can’t tell you. I need a porta loos because it’s far too far from where the bench is. I shouldn’t drink so much water before games and hour before halftime. Probably had 22 pints of water, where, my god. What are we doing? But there you go. I’m excited.

“I think the crowd were great, or the crowd were great. Brilliant pitch. What a what a wonderful example of people being committed to the calls, and there was so much great stuff, and wow, what a goal. The Swindon Messi, that’s what the lads are calling him in there.

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“That, it warmed my heart because he deserved it. He dribbled and he ran and he reached and he I don’t know how many people he fought there, but and drove it right in the bottom corner. So at the end of the day, we got loads and loads of skill. You need to balance that with the skill and the wheel, and I didn’t like the first half because they looked like they had more will than us, and that ain’t acceptable from anybody in my book.”

Interviewer: “Quick word on on Ollie Clarke, what’s the news on him?”

Ian: “He has ruptured a tendon on the outside of his ankle. He landed so awkwardly. He was looking crazily fantastic in a different position I put him in, and, I think he would have won some of them headers. I think he’d have knocked them sideways and gone and smashed them because I was gonna put him for one further back to do that. So I’m absolutely devastated, so I’m gonna try and cleanse the training ground area because people are telling me it’s haunted.

“Seriously, there’s a graveyard somewhere near. Honestly, I’m not joking. My wife watched this bloke on YouTube, Caspersight, and he goes, it was built on a graveyard. Well, I think our training ground is very close to an ancient burial site. So I’m gonna get my wife to come up and say sorry to all these people.

“And hopefully, we’ll have a bit more luck, but you gotta earn your luck. You gotta absolutely keep going on. I think we did.”

Interviewer: “Well, it’s better than the method Barry Fry used to try and keep your luck all those times as well.”

Ian: “That’s where I’m getting it from. Barry, I don’t wanna do what he did. I think he had to urinate on the corners of his bitch, but I’m not doing I’m gonna get my wife up with her sage. You know what I mean? I’ve done the old Glastonbury stuff and her hail unwelcome and all of that stuff. Brilliant. Right? Great if you believe in it. So I really am not sure, but I’m gonna get it just to try just to help. Do you know what I mean? Because there’s some strange things happening. Really is. Really is strange.

“But as you could tell, I’m absolutely buzzing because all you can do is see what they do, then change it, ask them to do it, have a go at them, be honest, boom. We’re trying to create the environment where they are not afraid to fail. I can say whatever I want. If it’s good enough, it’s bad enough, so what? And they’ll respond, and that’s all you need to do.

“So very pleased. Overall, I’ll take the point, how it went, but really we could have had 3. And if you’d have told me at halftime, don’t panic. You’re gonna score a goal like Lionel Messi scored, and you might be on top by the end of it, I think I would have took that.

“Because I felt terrible at half time. I almost had my hands out wanting to get 1 or 2 of them around the throat because you are paid to win headers. What are you doing? And then I calmed down.”

Interviewer: “So so last one very last one very quickly. Have you have you picked up any other any other injuries, or is it is it just part part of the mind?”

Ian: “No. I’m fine. Thank you. No. I don’t know yet. I’ve literally just come back out. I’ve said what I feel. And, really, to be honest, it’s a thing of pride. I really do believe that we’ve got all sorts of talent like I’ve just seen, and what it is about them doing it for real and telling each other that they expect better, and that comes if you’re honest and if you’ll and we’ve learned an awful lot today. I’m telling you. We’ve learned an awful lot about each other and how I want to be with them today.

“Honestly, it was great, and I’m not relieved. That’s not true. I think we deserved that on the second half display. It could have been better, but we didn’t deserve that because we should have competed better with what they were doing. And my staff have been so excellent showing them doing it, they’ve got to go out and do it. And you know what, I don’t like the way they did it because they weren’t helping each other like I would expect a team to really be. Second half they did. And I think you can see that if you’re a Swindon supporter.

“The crazy bit about this, this is all about a lack of communication. Professional footballers are nowhere near as good as communicating as they should be, as they were when I was growing up and senior pros taught me how to ‘go when you’re ready when you’re not doing it well enough you little herbert. Who do you think you are?!’ And they don’t do it. They’re all nice and they might be on the bus and they might talk about him and not say it to his face, so I’m not having any of that. And I can only explain to you what should happen, and in my group, it will, so I can only see us improving.

“And we need to improve on certain other aspects as well, but this is massive. ‘Go on, son. Go on when you’re headed. Go on. I’m with you. Go on. Well done. Or come on.’ It should be better than that. ‘That’s why I’m saying, we lost his head.’

“Shouldn’t mean we’re taking me centre forward to tell him, should it? They should be telling each other. So it’s only very simple, but take it out. It’s like a golf club. Right? In a golf bag. Take it out, polish it, put it back in. Take it out, polish it, put it back in, and we’re all getting shinier at the end of it all.

“We’ll take the point. We got them in a couple of weeks up here, see if I can improve that. Now we know exactly what they’re gonna do against us. Right? I think I can have a right go. I’m in the second half. I knew anyway, but I didn’t expect my team to be That’s what I want. ‘Grrrrs’ There’s a big difference. Thank you very much. Is that it’s gonna be a belter innit.”