Former Swindon Town midfielder Danny Rose said that the way the club’s title-winning season ended is one of the biggest disappointments of his career.

Rose spent 18 months at the County Ground under Richie Wellens as Town won League Two on a points-per-game decision following the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in his only full season.

The 36-year-old has now returned to the club as a Youth Development Phase Lead Coach and said that the way his time at the club ended the first time around is one of his biggest disappointments.

He said: “That is probably, not a regret, but one of my biggest disappointments in my career looking back on it.

“That has happened a couple of times to me that when a team has done really well, been promoted, and then naturally the players get attention from elsewhere, or the finances come into it, or whatever it might be.

“It is really difficult to keep a core of a squad together after it is successful.

“And I look back at the quality and the depth of that squad, if we could have been kept together with maybe the addition of one or two, you might lose one of two, I have no doubt that squad would have gone on to have a successful year going into League One.

“The same happened when I was at Portsmouth, and we had won League Two and then the next season unfortunately the manager left and then the squad got torn apart.

“It was definitely a disappointment that we didn’t get that opportunity to stay together and try and kick on.”

Rose also said that the way that the season ended with the socially distanced title celebrations and mathematical calculations required to crown them was frustrating.

He said: “It is difficult because the decision to curtail the season allowed us to win it, albeit I had experienced similar success before and to have those moments taken away, I didn’t enjoy that.

“I definitely have no doubt that we would have gone on to get promoted and probably be champions.

“I look back on that season and I just think of what a good squad we had, it was fantastic, you look at the dynamic, the different characters, experienced players, young players that were hungry, some in their prime in their late 20s.

“The squad had everything, so it shows that recruitment is key.”