Ian Holloway dishes out 15 games winning streak challenge

According to Ian Holloway, Swindon Town’s season has begun, and they intend to fight to the very end.

Town’s excellent start to 2025 has put those worries mostly to rest, as they are now 15 points above the relegation zone. However, the playoffs are still unlikely because they would need to win 12 of their final 15 games in order to have a chance.

Despite their excellent performance, they are under even more pressure to continue winning after drawing with Port Vale last week, beginning this weekend against Harrogate Town.

“I did not want to change too much because I believed in what we had here,” he said. “I kept telling you that at Christmas, the results did not change, and the old guy said, ‘Stop talking, mate, just win some games.'”

“Hopefully, the team I want to have will develop and all of those pieces will come together.

“Swindon is doing really well right now, in my opinion, but we still need to see some more progress.

“But we are nowhere near where we were before in the blame side of who brought who in but I think that some of the potential is showing.

“The challenge starts from now, in my opinion, the challenge that I am giving them starts from now about: can we be a success or are we going to fail?”

Holloway stated that he considers every game that is not a victory to be a loss because the ceiling for qualifying for the playoffs is still very high.

He said: “We have got to win every single game, so we lost last week, which has dented us, we lost two points.

“I need maximum points, so if we draw then we have lost two and that is how I am looking at it.

“I don’t think that we can afford to lose too many more out of the 15 games left if I am being brutally realistic.

“We have to win and that is what I am actually putting out there and I totally believe that. One more draw could be us finished.

“It has been going alright so far in the last 12 games, we have got 22 points but is that enough to get us up? No, we need even more than that to catch up with the first part of the season.

“We have got some massive tests and if you look at what is going to happen in March with who I have got to play, wow.

“Would I like to be picking up Manager of the Month for March because if that happens then I will be the happiest man in the world as we have some horrendous tests that could knock us off our block.”