THIRTY years on, I didn’t think I would still be here looking back, let alone where the club have come in that time.

We were in Sunderland playing there and one of our players, Joe Dunn, moved to Swindon to be ice rink manager.

He gave us a call and asked if we wanted to come down and have a look and we came one August Bank holiday and had a look around and came back the next weekend for good.

There were five of us that ended up moving down from Sunderland and playing, four of us are still in Swindon and one of us is in Cardiff.

Back then, the sport was not as professional as it is now but most sports weren’t then.

It’s light-years away, the conditions of the rinks and everything but Swindon has always been a good rink and a good facility.

When we came here it was like coming to something brand new and to be supplied with equipment was totally different to where we had come from.

I had always wanted to run the team from being 20-years-old and I had seen every owner and coach come through the club over the years and I knew one day that I would run the team.

I didn’t quite expect it to turn out the way it has done today but I knew at some point I would be in charge.

There are some many memories from down the years. I think that is one of the reasons why we are doing the ‘meet the legends’ night on Friday because there are so many good times and stories, with all the characters through the years.

I left a couple of times, I got sacked once, I might have got sacked twice, I can’t remember, but there are lots of good memories.

Every year there were good people to play with and people I still know now and not just the local boys but the boys from out of town.

There is no one moment that stands out because there are just so many of them, so many funny times that we have had.

I’m really proud of where we are at now as a club. I took over in 2004 and it has taken us a while to get to this point but it has just been through hard work and a lot of people.

It is not just me, a lot of people have put in a lot of hard work over the years. Some of the people are still involved and some of them are not but I don’t think you can forget the people who have helped us get to this point.

One thing I have always said, people always have their opinions about past owners, but without those past owners we wouldn’t be here doing what we are doing because it takes everybody to keep the team going.

The one year the team nearly ended, well it did for a few months after the Ice Lords, and we came back from Oxford.

The ice plant went down in Oxford and we moved to Swindon and we became the Swindon show.

That kept us going and everybody in between, they have all had a part in keeping the club going in the town and without them we wouldn’t be here today.

Looking to the future, I just want to make us bigger, stronger and more sustainable.

The supporters at the club are fantastic and are a big part of the club and without them we are nothing.

We’ve kept hockey going over some tough years and now it is about making it sustainable for the long term and I don’t see any reason why we can’t be here for another 30 years.