WHEN Swindon travelled to St Andrew’s to face Birmingham on 18 April 1989, City were floundering at the foot of the Second Division table and that was reflected by the meagre 4,026 who turned up to witness the game.

Despite winning only one of the last six, Town were sitting eighth.

Steve Foley having picked up an ankle injury following a home draw with Watford, 19-year-old Fitzroy Simpson was brought in by Lou Macari for only his second start for the club.

Proceedings commenced on a sombre note when a minute silence was observed for the 96 victims of the Hillsborough disaster which had occurred three days before.

Swindon went ahead on 25 minutes with a long range strike from Ross MacLaren.

Playing in the role of sweeper, he collected the ball from Colin Calderwood just inside his own half. Gathering pace, he then let fly from 30 yards with his right foot and Martin Thomas was powerless as the ball arrowed into his net just under the bar.

The keeper was beaten again less than 10 minutes later when, following a free-kick for a foul on Simpson, Alan McLoughlin hit a crisp drive that hit the base of the post and spun out for a corner.

The flag-kick was cleared but when the ball came in again from the right from Tom Jones, it was handled by Mark Yates.

MacLaren was entrusted with the spot kick and, from a long run up, blasted the ball straight into the centre of the net with Thomas sensibly diving out of its path.

In truth, Town should have then capitalised on their lead, against a very poor home side that could muster only one corner all game - and their few faithful fans had to wait 77 minutes for that.

But they did have a goal to celebrate, 12 minutes after the interval.

Simon Sturridge carried the ball half the length of the field before switching play to the right for Brian Roberts to swing in a high cross to the far post. David Hockaday misjudged the flight of the ball and it fell to Dean Peer who was right behind him. The full-back made no mistake to reduce the arrears to 3-1.