THERE was perhaps an inevitable sense of foreboding and world-weariness among some supporters when Swindon Town and Phil Brown were thrown together in their quick-fire marriage of convenience on Monday night.

After all, it’s only a few months since Town’s last pairing with a ‘high-profile’ football name ended amid rancour, buck-passing and denial as the coupling of the club and ‘director of football’ Tim Sherwood ended with the former relegated to the bottom rung of the English Football League and the latter washing his hands of any part in it on national television.

Town fans, having already seen nine managers sit in the County Ground hotseat in the last 10 years and watched most recent incumbent David Flitcroft’s commitment to his ‘project’ extend only as far as a late-season flit north to Mansfield Town, are perfectly entitled maintain concerns about the club’s overall vision and longer-term planning.

Yet none of that should detract from the feeling that Brown and Town being thrown together in these circumstances seems like the best course of action available to chairman Lee Power.

For sure, many will look at the 58-year-old’s managerial win percentage - in the mid-30s - and question whether he possesses the alchemy to turn a campaign that has fluctuated wildly between the sublime and the ridiculous into a promotion-winning one that all associated with the club long for.

Yet stats can mislead at times. Also included within Brown’s record are two promotions, with Southend from this very division in 2015 and, more eye-catchingly, Hull City to the Premier League a decade ago.

If that hardly points to a manager who has enjoyed sustained success year on year, it at least proves the new County Ground chief knows how to get across the finishing line.

Are Brown and Town the perfect match?

Maybe, maybe not.

But in this instance, the more pertinent question must be: does it really matter?

The reality - and the season’s expectations set by Power himself - mean that everything now boils down to the 10-game spell between now, Accrington Stanley at home on May 6 and, if necessary, beyond.

Brown himself acknowledged the “unique’’ nature of the situation he was walking into on Monday, a club on the edge of the play-off zone and still, despite 15 losses in 36 games to date, only eight points off the third automatic promotion spot.

Vacancies and opportunities like these are rare enough for managers and if there is such a thing as a free hit in the sometimes-crazy world of professional football, this is surely it.

Win five of their remaining matches and Town will surpass the 70 points which squeezed Blackpool into the League Two play-offs last season. And look what happened to them.

Brown would then emerge with a significant feather in his managerial cap and credit in the bank, be it elsewhere or here, whereas Town will have been restored to the level their hierarchy so desperately craves.

Fall short and, given no access to a transfer window and with an injury-hit squad he will have had little time to assess, minimal blame would reasonably be apportioned at the door of the new man.

Power’s regime has often, correctly, been questioned - not least by the Swindon Advertiser - over its overall vision and direction for the club.

But there is little doubting the chairman’s oft-stated determination - maybe even desperation - to return to League One.

Falling attendances and waning interest levels are just one sign that Town really can ill-afford another season in league’s bottom tier.

Just for once, the future really can wait.