AFTER working hard to give themselves a real chance of survival over the past few weeks, Swindon Town pushed the self-destruct button on Easter Monday as they put in a woeful performance at Walsall to fall to another late defeat.

On Tuesday evening, Town’s relegation rivals Bury secured a point away at Bolton Wanderers, leaving Luke Williams’ side three points inside the bottom four with two games remaining.

That means that if Town lose at home to Scunthorpe United, who can still secure automatic promotion, on Saturday and Bury avoid defeat at home to Northampton Town, Swindon will be relegated to League Two.

But we must cling onto the fact that when Town entertain sides in the top six, their performance does seem to improve as they rise to the occasion.

Ben Gladwin is the player equivalent of this trend, and if he turns up on Saturday, we’ll have a fighting chance.

Alongside the huge ramifications of anything other than a win is the fact this will be the last home appearance for a few well-known and some much-loved faces at the County Ground.

Jonathan Obika, Yaser Kasim, Raphael Rossi Branco, Jamie Sendles-White and Tom Smith are just some of the players whose contracts come to an end this summer, but the biggest name is the captain Nathan Thompson.

With Thompson’s current deal coming to an end and no news coming out of the club regarding a new one, it’s looking likely he’ll move on.

In my naivety, I thought Thompson would be the modern day John Trollope and stay at Town throughout his career, in the good times and the bad.

Since breaking into the first team, he has been the Town fan on the pitch, as we’ve seen in derby games. Whether he’s celebrating in front of Bristol City fans or crying on the pitch at Wembley, he’s someone we can relate to, and it’s hard to think such a important figure will be moving on.

But wherever he ends up next season, I wish him all the best as he’s not only a great player but a great guy and deserves a successful career.

Let’s hope we’ll maybe seen him back in a Town shirt at some point in the future.