EX-SWINDON Town performance analyst Ron Terry won £24,000 in damages and £12,000 costs in a claim against the club after a court ruled he was sacked in breach of his contract.

Swindon County Court heard today that Mr Terry had worked at Swindon Town since 2008 providing analysis of opponents and Town games until his contract was terminated in November 2013.

He claimed after chairman Lee Power took over the club there was an effort to remove him. But Mr Power claimed Mr Terry’s work was shoddy and that he had been told repeatedly he was not performing to the required standard.

Matters came to a head at a game with Port Vale on November 2 when Mr Terry called in sick.

“I never received any negative criticism of my work from anybody until the time that Lee Power became majority shareholder,” Mr Terry told the court.

“At a meeting on 20 June 2013, I was asked how likely it would be for me to accept a settlement considering my services were no longer required. At that point I assumed it was a club going through restructuring and trying to save some money.”

Various settlements were offered to Mr Terry to forego his two-year fixed term contract of £2,500 a month, due to expire in August 2014. 

After they were rejected, he was refused payments amounting to £10,000 between August 2013 and November 2013.

Mr Power told the court documents went missing after his ownership battle with Jed McRory and the terms of Mr Terry’s contract were not clear to the club, so it withheld payment because it did not feel his work warranted his wage. 

“When I took over the focus was the football side of the business and it was brought to my attention by the then manager and assistant manager they were having problems with the service and quality of the video provided by Mr Terry,” he said.

“The management team had reservations which I explained to him. I then began to put our complaints in writing. The final straw was a match on November 2 against Port Vale when he did not come in when requested and there was no DVD for that game, which was a huge embarrassment for the club.

“I believe during that game there was a disturbance between the benches and that footage was needed, so we were left in breach of Football League regulations.” 

Mr Terry was told in a letter on November 5 his contract was terminated with immediate effect. He was owed wages from that July which were paid in January 2014 after the club was served with a legal order. 

Mr Power asked for the case to be adjourned because his legal firm, St John Law, had gone into administration but the application was dismissed.

Deputy District Judge Coppen awarded £20,000 damages, with £4,000 interest and £12,000 costs.

He said: “For a significant part of this case the defendants were represented by solicitors, who went into administration in 2013.

“While I can sympathise with the position Mr Power was in during this period, this case is connected with a period of considerable transition within the parent company. That comes with disruption and a degree of confusion. It is clear they have been piecing together information which in the normal course would have been at their fingertips. 

“The heart of this matter is one day when the claimant is ill and unable to go to work. There was an unlawful breach of contract on the part of the defendant and as a result I find for the sum of £20,000 for the claimant, in addition to costs and interest.”