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| Scott TWINE | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Few Town academy graduates have still been at Town almost four years after signing their first professional contract, and none of those can have marked the occasion with as much aplomb as Scott Twine. 46 months to the day after signing his first professional contract, Twine starred on Sky against Ipswich, thumping in a 30-yard thunderbolt in the 67th minute which took social media by storm and winning the man of the match award. It was quite the moment for a local lad and a graduate of Swindon’s youth academy who had taken the traditional pathway for a promising forward player: professional deal into loan spells with a local non-league club (in Twine’s case, Chippenham Town) and sporadic involvement in the first team. For many players, that pathway leads to Swindon Supermarine, but Twine’s development continued until a breakthrough loan spell with League Two Newport County for the first half of the 2020/21 season. Twine had always had a gift for the technically spectacular, but his lack of physicality meant that he often struggled to impose himself on games. A spell at Newport, often maligned for a more industrial style of play looked to be make or break, and pleasingly it was the former. Across 19 appearances for the South Wales side, Twine scored six goals, including October’s League Two goal of the month. More than just his goalscoring exploits, Twine looked more at home in the men’s game than he ever had before, dropping back from his previous pure forward role into an attacking midfield berth which really suited his range of passing and vision. Town fans were rightly excited when he was recalled from Newport in January, with Town struggling near the bottom of League One and in need of a saviour. Many years before his breakthrough, Twine was highly rated: he made the first team bench at the end of the 2015/16 season as a 16-year old and his debut exactly a year later, replacing Islam Feruz in the 69th minute away at The Valley on the last day of the 2016/17 relegation season. Another year on, Twine was becoming something of an April specialist - he made his first start in Town colours at the County Ground against Yeovil after returning from a successful loan at Chippenham, but didn’t make a huge impact from an unfamiliar posting on the right wing. His first goal in Town colours came the following season against York in the FA Cup, and his first league goal at home against Stevenage shortly after, a game in which he partnered fellow youth prospect Sol Pryce, who scored twice. Whilst Phil Brown had sought to involve Twine more regularly in the first team set up, Richie Wellens was less convinced - although Wellens had far better forward options to call upon for the 2019/20 League Two championship season, where the form of Jerry Yates, Eoin Doyle and Kaiyne Woolery understandably restricted Twine’s involvement. A frustrated Twine returned to Chippenham on loan, and it would have been easy to see the end coming for Twine’s professional career. However, he excelled at Chippenham, scoring six goals in eight games in the National League South, and caught the eye enough to earn his loan to Newport the following year. Stringing two successful loans together brought a much more mature and impactful Twine back to Town and his achievements in the second half of the 2020/21 season outshone his previous five seasons as Town player comfortably. In a poor team heading for relegation, Twine was time and time again a lone spot of light, and he compiled a highlights reel of goals that would take most players a career. His marvellous strike at Ipswich was joined by a well taken winner at Crewe, free kicks against Northampton and Wigan and, perhaps most fittingly, a last minute winner against Wigan on the final day. Town were already relegated, but academy manager Alan McLoughlin had died days earlier and a clearly emotional Twine pointed to the heavens as a mark of respect for his mentor. The goal meant that he had netted nine times from outside the area over the season. Having been linked with clubs further up the pyramid, the Town in turmoil, and his contract expiring, although Twine said his departure was not a foregone conclusion, it was hardly a surprise that he decided to leave when the season ended - signing for MK Dons on a long-term contract, with the Town due compensation as he was still under the age of twenty-four. Twine sent a message to Town fans after his departure was confirmed - stating that it was a tough decision to make as a Swindon fan, but he felt that the move was right to further his career - signing off with “hopefully one day we meet again.” PLAYING RECORD:
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date of birth
usual positions centre forward youth career senior career website links |
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