Ian Holloway incident sparks big Swindon Town fan reaction | OneFootball

The fiery Swindon Town boss was sent off in a pre-season friendly against Costa City last week

Swindon Town will be looking to put the disappointment of last season behind them and go one better than their eighth-placed finish in League Two in the 2026/27 campaign.

The Robins were in the top three heading into late February, having spent the majority of the campaign in those automatic promotion spots, too.

However, just three wins in their final 13 games, 3–0 and 4–0 defeats away at Colchester United and Grimsby Town in the final four, and a loss to Chesterfield on the final day saw Swindon fall out of the top seven completely, finishing ninth.

Throughout the campaign, Ian Holloway, who returned to management after four years away to take on the Swindon job in December 2024, was embroiled in some heated and controversial exchanges.

His explosive rant at the FA, who he called cowards following the news surrounding the suspension of his captain, Ollie Carke, back in February, went viral, and he was shown a red card later that year, too, for a comment made from the bench against Bristol Rovers.

Ian Holloway sent off in Swindon Town's recent pre-season friendly

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A lot of people correlated Swindon's slide in the final months of the campaign with Holloway's passionate rants and actions, but it seems that, despite how last season ended, the Robins are set to begin 2026/27 with the 63-year-old in their dugout.

Holloway has seemingly started this season where he left off, though, as he was sent off in the latter stages of his side's 1-0 win against Costa City during their pre-season tour in Alicante last Friday.

A Fletcher Holman penalty was all that separated the sides in what was heading towards a rather low-key affair, until Holloway was dismissed after an altercation with a member of the opposition, which Swindon stated was due to "unsportsmanlike conduct" from them.

Red cards in pre-season are rare, let alone ones shown to the bench, and Swindon fans online are growing tired of Holloway's antics, following the end of last season.

"The guy is a liability, if not slightly unhinged," one fan said on X. "He has totally lost the plot and his mind over the last 6 months. I bet the team is totally divided in its attitude to him," another added.

"Here we go again. Another season of his nonsense. Tiresome," were also amongst the replies from Swindon fans. "Unhinged," a Gillingham fan said.

Ian Holloway may be running out of time to get Swindon Town fans onside

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Holloway took charge of Swindon when they were 22nd in League Two midway through the 2024/25 campaign. He picked up 51 points from 33 games in charge, steering them to a top-half finish.

He divided opinion months into his reign with a passionate rant at a fan who was voicing his displeasure in the away end at Bradford City, but with results improving and then bleeding into the recent campaign, it was easy for the 63-year-old to be backed.

The 2025/26 term, on the whole, was successful, as the Robins had no worries about relegation after the recent two seasons were filled with them; they had the League Two top scorer in their ranks in Aaron Drinan, and they beat Luton Town in the EFL Trophy at Kenilworth Road to reach the quarter-finals.

Unfortunately, that Luton situation, which saw the result reversed as Swindon fielded ineligible players, then led to that aforementioned rant against the FA and the results taking a nosedive.

The Robins have shown that they can battle with the best in League Two, and that'll be the expectation in what is their seventh successive campaign at the level following third-tier relegation in 2021.

If those results from the final 13 games continue into the new campaign, it may be difficult to see a way back for Holloway at the County Ground.