Swinton return from the wilderness

After 10 years in the wilderness – or in Bury, which is virtually the same thing – Swinton come home tomorrow. A decade in exile has come close to killing a club who have been playing rugby league since 1896, but the hope now is that there is still enough life left to survive transplantation back into home soil.

Purists might argue that Salford City's football ground at Moor Lane is not actually in Swinton, but, at 400 yards away, it is, according to Stephen Wild, the chairman of the Swinton Supporters' Trust, "as near as dammit". Those supporters have been instrumental in making the move back to the club's roots possible. Almost since they arrived at Gigg Lane, the most committed of their fans have been agitating for a return.

Now they have their way and have put their money where their mouths were – the £15,000 they have contributed to helping the club survive has earned them a seat on the board.

Tony Barrow, now Swinton's chief executive, remembers how the previous board made the decision to move from Station Road, their home since 1929. "I'd only been back as coach for a couple of months when they decided they had to sell the ground to survive," he recalls. "I wasn't asked, I was told." Swinton looked into a number of more local options – including playing at Moor Lane, or moving in with their nearest rugby league neighbours, Salford – but their fateful decision was to move in with Bury.

"I was optimistic," says Barrow. "But you learn by your mistakes. I thought the people of Bury would get behind us, but it never worked that way. They don't support their own football team, so we hadn't got much chance." The other thing Swinton failed to do was to take their own supporters with them. Swinton to Bury might not look very far on a map, but convenient transport links are non-existent. In the Lions' last season at Station Road they were drawing crowds of 3,000; at Bury, four figures have been a rarity and the club have teetered on the edge of financial calamity.

In the end, Swinton's hand was forced. Bury are in a crisis of their own and do not want tenants who have failed to deliver the promised financial benefits to their landlords. Finding a new home was not easy. Salford still did not want to share with them; Leigh and Chorley came to the rescue by offering temporary homes. Eventually, protracted negotiations tied up the deal at Moor Lane.

"In a way, it's where we always wanted to play, but the previous owner of the club didn't want us. There's been a change of ownership and they have ambitions to rise through the divisions, so having us there now makes sense," Barrow says.

The rest is now up to the fans; not the activists, who did much to smooth the deal through and will obviously be there tomorrow, but those who have given up on the club during the exile. Starting with today's no doubt emotional homecoming against Doncaster, Swinton just need them to start turning up again.

"A thousand a game – that's all we need," says Barrow. "Anything over a thousand will be a bonus. Costs are a lot lower at this ground, so that helps. It's the way forward, there's no doubt about that. We've got to stop worrying about the past and look to the future."

Close to home it might be, but no-one who remembers Station Road will confuse it with the new ground. Battered and dilapidated it might have been towards the end of its life, but Station Road was a stadium that had staged Tests against Australia and Challenge Cup semi-finals in the memory of most of its spectators.

It held over 44,000 for one of those semis in 1951; the most Moor Lane has ever held is 3,600, but Barrow sees that small scale as a positive advantage. "The atmosphere will be electric," he promises. "It won't need a lot in to feel like that. It's so tight to the touchlines that a couple of thousand will feel like 10,000. I won't kid people. It's not the McAlpine Stadium, but it is home."

Barrow says he has learned much from the experience of exile. "I wouldn't advise anyone to do what we did. Moving grounds doesn't work. Even clubs that have built a new ground in the same town have suffered. The only exception is Widnes, because they built on the same site. My advice would be to stay in your own community – if possible at your own ground."

Swinton have learned that lesson the hard way and have only barely survived to tell the tale. The rugby posts are in place and Barrow says that the players are buzzing with excitement. All it needs now is an audience to welcome them home.