To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Swindon Town's 1969 League Cup triumph, all week Adver Sport will be publishing a series of stories to mark the momentous occasion.

WEMBLEY hero Don Rogers believes Swindon Town’s 1969 League Cup triumph was ‘fate’ and is unlikely to ever be repeated by a lower league side.

Rogers scored the second and third goals as then Third Division side Town claimed a famous 3-1 final victory over Arsenal exactly 50 years ago today.

The now 73-year-old and the rest of that legendary cup-winning team will be celebrated prior to Town’s League Two clash against Port Vale at the County Ground on Saturday.

Speaking to the Advertiser about that unforgettable day 50 years ago, Rogers reminisced about Town’s route to the final under the stewardship of the late Danny Williams and cited memorable matches against Derby County and Burnley as key moments.

Compared to the six games played by First Division opponents Arsenal, Rogers’ Swindon played 11 times in the tournament before the final and faced Burnley three times at the semi-final stage before finally emerging 6-5 winners on aggregate.

Rogers scored seven times throughout the competition and suggested that although Town felt they could win every game they played, it was the fifth-round tie against Derby that kicked off beliefs that perhaps they had a chance to lift the trophy.

Rogers said: “We had so many replays. After a while, you start to think your name is on it.

“It was the Derby game that actually convinced us.

“We’d gone up to Derby and it was 0-0 but we got battered. Then we come back here and I had a shot which hit Dave McKay in the middle of the back, looped over the goalkeeper and we won 1-0.

“At that point, you start thinking: ‘Is it our year? Are we going to go all the way?’

“Even Burnley scored an own goal in the semi and it makes you wonder.

“All those things made it feel like it was meant to be. It was fate, I’m sure it was.”

Since the inception of the League Cup in 1960, only two teams from below the second tier of English football have ever won the trophy – the other being Queens Park Rangers.

Rogers cannot see a day when that list of underdogs is extended and feels the chances of being able to label Town as double League Cup winners are even more remote.

He said: “I think it is impossible for something like that to happen again.

“Unless all the top teams get knocked out against one another, there’s always going to be two Premier League clubs left. You’d have to be very lucky to get through.

“It will be a long time before Swindon does anything like that again – a long time. But you never know, that’s the beauty of football.”