TOWN fans would have thought any implications from the BEST Holdings takeover farce had long run their course but the whole forgettable saga returned to bite them on the bum at the County Ground on Saturday.
Had new owners Andrew Fitton & Co surfaced before the involvement of the now infamous Portuguese consortium, Lee Holmes would probably be a Town player - instead he was putting a dagger in the hearts of Swindon's play-off aspirations.
The winger, currently on loan at Walsall from Derby, was set to sign at the County Ground in August until the uncertainty surrounding the club's future persuaded him to bide his time and pursue other career paths. Who could blame him?
But now with Jorge Rubenstein and BEST just a distant nightmare, Town fans were forced to watch their one-time darling return to Wiltshire and cap a scintillating individual display with two hugely important goals.
"As many people know I came here and watched a few games with a view to signing earlier in the season," said Holmes. "Things were up in the air here though because of the takeover and things were up in the air at Derby as well.
"I could have been coming out here as a Town player if the club's future had been sorted and that would have been nice.
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"I did have a great time here before and the fans were great to me. In football everyone knows things are not for certain, I am at Walsall now and am really enjoying it."
Anyone who witnessed Holmes' loan spell with the Robins back in 2004/05 would not have been surprised by his performance and it only painfully demonstrated the lack of creation that Town are currently suffering from
Alex Nicholl's 90th-minute goal simply put the gloss on Walsall's convincing victory but it left Town staring at a nine-point gap between them and League One's all-important top six.
But Saturday's defeat was more to do with being out-battled and out-thought than being out-skilled, something which can rarely be said against a Town side who have built a reputation of fighting for the cause together.
Holmes' opener, a delicious curling 20-yard free kick on 11 minutes, was inexplicably brought about by Jerel Ifil's decision to let Clayton Ince's punt bounce before fouling Kevin Betsy on the edge of the area.
His second came just seconds after Town had an attacking free-kick of their own, with no-one tracking his penetrating run from deep, while Nicholls' third stemmed from an under-hit backpass by skipper Hasney Aljofree.
Pre-match, Maurice Malpas' decision to recall goalkeeper Phil Smith in place of Peter Brezovan was the major talking point but by the end it was the least of Town's worries.
To pick out a decent performer, aside from Smith, would be a difficult task although Miguel Comminges's energy and drive down the right and Jon-Paul McGovern's desire were at least small crumbs of comfort, but not enough to prevent a crushing defeat.
"It was nice for me to come and score here," said Holmes. "But it was nice to get the win.
"We knew we had to come here and win and thankfully we have done that.
"We had 20 minutes in the second half where we took our foot off the gas but apart from that I would say it was our best performance away from home since I have been here.
"I was surprised at how comfortable it was.
"Town are a good side and when they played us at ours on my first game they were tough, they were hard to beat, and had attacking threat. Today I don't know, they just did not get started. We capitalised on that, managed to get a few goals and the game was over."
There is always another game in football though and Holmes believes Town fans can still look forward to an exciting end to the season. He said: "Town can definitely still make the play-offs.
"They are not far off the top six and there is a lot of swings and roundabouts still to go. There are a lot of people behind us who still think they can make the play-offs.
"We will stick with what we are doing and see where it gets us. I did not get any stick from the fans at all, thankfully Tommy Mooney took most of it for me."
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