Holloway plans cleanse of 'haunted' Swindon training ground with sage

Ian Holloway says that he plans to “cleanse” Swindon Town’s training ground due to the bad luck the team have been receiving with injuries.

Swindon earned a 2-2 draw on the road against Accrington Stanley on Saturday without Ollie Clarke and after the game, Holloway was asked if there had been any update about his injury after he said he had been going for a scan on his ankle on Thursday.

Clarke, it was revealed, has suffered an ankle injury which will keep him out for a month in training, Holloway said that he planned to try and get rid of the bad luck that he believed to be haunting the team.

Town train at Beversbrook Sports and Community Facility in Calne, an area Holloway claims is on the sight of an old burial ground which he feels has been impacting the squad’s luck.

Clarke is the latest injury that Town have sustained this season with many other members of the squad having had to spend time out this campaign and Holloway hopes to try and turn their luck around by appeasing the spirits.

He said: “I am absolutely devastated [by Clarke’s injury], so I am going to try and cleanse the training ground area because people are telling me it is haunted.

“Seriously, there is a graveyard somewhere near, I am not joking, my wife watches this bloke on YouTube, Caspersight, and he goes ‘It was built on a graveyard!’

“I think that our training ground is very close to an ancient burial site, so I am going to get my wife to come up and say sorry to all of these people and hopefully we will have a bit more luck.

“We have got to earn that luck and keep going and I think we absolutely did that.”

So far this season, Ryan Delaney, Clarke, Paul Glatzel, Harry Smith, Sean McGurk, Rosaire Longelo, Aaron Drinan, Grant Hall, and Kabongo Tshimanga have all dealt with injuries which have seen them miss time.

Barry Fry is notorious for having tried to lift a “Gypsy Curse” at St Andrew’s whilst he was manager of Birmingham City and Holloway said that that has inspired him.

Holloway said that he has been inspired by him and his plan was to bring his wife in to try and cleanse the training ground to help bring an end to the “strange” goings on with the club.

He said: “Barry Fry, this is where I am getting it from, I don’t want to do what he did, I think he had to urinate in the corners of his pitch, but I am not doing that.

“I am going to get my wife up with her sage, I have done the old Glastonbury stuff, the ‘hail and welcome’ and all of that stuff – it is brilliant.

“It is great if you believe in it. Do I? I am not sure. But I will get her to try just to help because there are some strange things happening, there really are.”