We continue our build up to Saturday's Emirates FA Cup first round tie by looking back at previous games between ourselves and Swindon Town.

(Buy your pass for Saturday's game here: 

https://darlingtonfc.co.uk/news/buy-your-match-pass-for-saturdays-emirates-fa-cup-tie)

Swindon are no strangers to us, as we’ve met them several times in cup competitions as well as the league, over 100 years.

The first time we encountered each other was way back in the 1910-11 season, in the third round of the FA Cup – the equivalent to today’s fifth round.

We had one of our best ever FA Cup runs to reach that stage, playing eleven matches, starting from the preliminary round!

Here’s our run:

1^st Qualifying round: Hartlepool (home) drew 1-1 (away) won 1-0

2^nd Qualifying round: Wingate Albion (home) drew 1-1 (home) drew 0-0. (at Middlesbrough) won 2-1

3^rd Qualifying round: Bishop Auckland (home) won 2-0

4^th Qualifying Round Shildon (home) won 5-3

5^th Qualifying round Blackwell Colliery (away) won 6-1

First round: Sheffield United (away) won 1-0

Second round: Bradford Park Avenue (home) won 2-1

The Sheffield United and Bradford Park Avenue wins were proper giantkillings, as they were in the Football League at the time and we were in the North Eastern League.

Unfortunately, we lost 3-0 at home to Swindon, who were then in the Southern League.

Here’s the Darlington team from that season:

Our team was Brebner, Jackson, Taylor, Harrison, Bannister, Hisbent, Donnelly, Fraser, Denham, Cornock, Dodds.

We didn’t meet again until the 1962-63 season in the Football League Cup, Swindon, who were a division higher than us, coming out on top by 4-0.

Three years later though, we pulled off one of our best ever cup victories, beating Swindon in the second round of the 1965-66 League Cup by 2-1 at Feethams, Brian Conlon and Jimmy Lawton scoring.

Straight after the game, Lawton was transferred to Swindon, with Alan Sproates and some cash coming in exchange. Sproates was later to play a key role in the promotion campaign that season, and the cash was used to purchase Bobby Cummings from Newcastle.

The Darlington team that night:

Moor, Peverell, Keeble, Yeoman, Greener, McGeachie, Atkinson, Conlon, Lawton, Cardew, Johnstone.

We went on to beat First Division Blackpool in the next round, before losing to Ipswich.

We met Swindon on equal terms in season 1966-67 after we had won promotion to the old Third Division, but we lost 4-0 at the County Ground on 27^th August 1966.

However, we won the reverse fixture by 2-1 at Feethams on New Year’s Eve 1966, Les O’Neill and Don Ratcliffe scoring.

We played each other eight times in the 1980s in the league.

On three occasions, we beat the Robins by a single goal at Feethams, and on the fourth occasion we drew 0-0.

We won at the County Ground in 1983 but lost on the other three occasions.

There was a four-year gap before we played each other again in the 1990 League Cup, in our first season back in the Football League.

You can read more details about that game here:

https://darlingtonfc.co.uk/news/fa-cup-build-up-weve-met-swindon-before

We beat Swindon 3-0 in the first leg at Feethams but lost the second 4-0 at the County Ground.

We’ve only met each other twice since then, in the 2006-07 season in the old League Two.

We lost 2-1 at home to Swindon at the Arena, then drew the return game 1-1 at the County Ground. Martin Smith scored our equaliser in the second half.

The Darlington team: Jones, Horwood, Wheater, Close, Miller, Rowson, Ravenhill (sub Smith 62), Wainwright (sub Joachim 70), Cummins, Blundell, Armstrong (sub Wright 62)