EVERYTHING ABOUT EOIN Doyle’s season to this date has been unprecedented, so maybe the circumstances of Swindon’s title win are fitting in one way. 

Doyle joined Swindon on loan at the start of the season and scored a remarkable 23 goals in 22 games,  a run in which he equalled Jamie Vardy’s record in English football for scoring in 11 consecutive games and won an unprecedented three-straight Player of the Month awards. 

With Swindon top of the league at the start of 2020, he was recalled to his parent club Bradford, but expressed a desire to return to Swindon and did so on a permanent deal at the end of January. He scored another three goals in six games before the season ground to a halt amid the Covid-19 outbreak, and after weeks of uncertainty, clubs this week unanimously voted to end the season on a points-per-game basis, weighted to reflect home and away form. 

The decision must be ratified by the English Football League at a meeting next Wednesday, and should they give their approval, second-placed Swindon will leapfrog Crewe Alexandra to pip them to the title. 

Both sides are on 69 points, but Swindon have played one game fewer than Crewe, who will be promoted in second place. Plymouth will be promoted in this scenario, too, with the fourth side going up to be decided by holding the play-offs as planned.  (Exeter City, Cheltenham Town, Colchester United, and Northampton Town are the four sides set for those play-offs.) 

“I believe it is more or less done”, Doyle told Sligo Rovers to promote their virtual match fundraiser with Cork City. 

All the clubs voted on it together and as far I know it’s just a matter of the EFL and the FA signing it off to make sure it goes ahead. When you look at the points per game, I think we win it by a fraction of a point which is a bit weird. But if you look overall and at our run-in – which would have been the more favourable compared to teams around us. So I think we will be deserving winners. 

“When the news broke, I was colouring in with my children at the kitchen table. I couldn’t celebrate. Usually it would be champagne being sprayed around the place. It was a bit strange and unique, but it’s a unique time. I had a few drinks in the house on Saturday night and had a few Zoom calls with the lads but that was it. It’s a strange situation. As things go though, it’s a positive for us.”

This is Doyle’s third League Two title, although it could have been preceded by a 2012 League of Ireland title with Sligo had he declined a move to Hibernian midway through the season. 

“It is one thing that still haunts me, that I haven’t won the league at home”, he told Sligo’s website. “I’d love to be able to come back to Ireland one day and be able to do that.” 

He said he owes Sligo a lot, particularly his former boss Paul Cook. 

“I think it was a game against Cork, away from home late on in the season. I would have been playing on the wing at the time. We were in the hotel having a pre-match meal and Cookie comes over to me and says ‘Doyler, what do you think your best position is’. So I said I’m a striker.

“He said ‘go away, you are messing’. The following season we needed someone to fill in as striker and the rest is history from there. He always gave me great advice.”