Ian Holloway blames Swindon's dreadful run of form on 'haunted' training ground

The Robins have endured a difficult start to the 2024/25 campaign and currently sit in 22nd position in League Two.

This is after winning just twice in 16 league fixtures so far this term.

As a result of their poor form, Holloway was named as the new Swindon boss at the end of October and he has since been trying to get to grips with life at the County Ground.

But while results on the pitch have improved since his appointment, their luck on the training ground is enough to haunt anyone.

Most recently, Holloway's captain Ollie Clarke ruptured his ankle tendon in a training session, leading the 62-year-old to call in his wife to remove the dark spirits from their Beversbrook Sports and Community facility training base.

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"I'm absolutely devastated so I'm going to try and cleanse the training ground area because people are telling me it's haunted," Holloway told BBC Radio Wiltshire.

"There's a graveyard somewhere near. Honestly, I'm not joking.

"I think our training ground is very close to an ancient burial site so I'm going to get my wife to come up and say sorry to all these people and hopefully we'll have a bit more luck."

Swindon aren't the only club to deal with such an issue.

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Former Birmingham boss Barry Fry is alleged to have once urinated in the corners of the club's St Andrew's ground to dispel a 100-year-old curse.

Asked if he would do the same, Holloway replied: "I don't want to do what he [Fry] did... but I'm going to get my wife to come up with her sage.

"I've done the Glastonbury stuff and the hail and welcome - great if you believe it.

"Do I? Really I'm not sure but I'm going to get it just to help because there's some strange things happening."

Holloway has previously claimed that his dad contacted him from the dead by turning up the radio in his car.

He told the Life Lessons podcast: "I had this digital music player in my car. I looked at it, and there was something on the steering wheel but I didn't touch it because my hands were nowhere near it, and the light that came in the car - it totally filled the car up.

"And I looked outside and it was sunny outside, so I thought, 'That's weird.' And then Mariah Carey and the song [One Sweet Day] was on and 'shining down on me from Heaven' got louder and louder and louder until it was completely top notch.

"I saw it go from 10 up to about 35 and it was deafening. And the minute the song finished that went right back down to normal.

"And I was looking at myself going, 'Oh my...' I was shaking. I thought, 'Has that really happened or what? Or is that me wishing that?' Do you get what I mean? And I swear he came and showed me that, 'Don't worry son, you'll be fine.' Right?

"Now, I would never have believed that, I wouldn't have thought for one minute that he would have ever have done that because he said it was all a load of garbage.

"So the truth is, I don't know. And did I feel it? Did I want to feel it? Was it really there? I cannot honestly tell you. But I swear to you, I saw the dial move on its own."

Whether you believe in the supernatural or not, Holloway's arrival at Swindon has been a blessing.

In the four games since he's taken charge the former Crystal Palace, Blackpool and QPR boss has overseen two wins, a draw and a defeat to aid the club's hopes of avoiding relegation from the EFL.