Austin not bothered about critics as his 199th goal earns Swindon a point

Swindon Town frontman Charlie Austin said he did not care about any of his critics and declared: “I’m the best goalscorer at the football club.”

The 34-year-old made it 199 goals throughout his career at professional level, having netted the leveller in Town’s 1-1 home draw with Harrogate.

Having come off the bench after 53 minutes, the former QPR and Southampton frontman headed in with five minutes remaining to cancel out Anthony O’Connor’s strike.

Speaking post-match to BBC Radio Wiltshire about his goals tally, Austin said: “It wasn’t until about a month ago where I knew where I was.

“I started thinking about it and I was getting frustrated, then I was getting even more frustrated.

“It’s great if I could get to 200. The long and short of it is, I don’t really care what people start saying – I’m finished, I can’t move, I can’t do this.

“I’m 34 and I’m the best goalscorer at the football club and I have scored 199 career goals, football league goals, and that’s the way it is.”

The point put Gavin Gunning’s side 17^th in League Two, with 44 points from 36 games. With Austin not too pleased about the playing surface on their own turf.  

“We just didn’t do enough to win the game,” he said.

“We had parts in the game that were okay, a little bit in the ascendancy at the end but we didn’t do enough to win the game.

“I think that’s it. They set up the way they did, it suited them the way we kind of played but the pitch doesn’t help in that way.

“We like to pass the ball around and the pitch is a Sunday morning pitch at the moment.  That’s it. I think everybody can see that.

“But ultimately, we just didn’t do enough to win the game of football.

“We got a point. I don’t think we should have lost the game.

“It just sums up where we are at as a football club at the moment in this season.

“We are sat 16^th or 17^th in League Two and the performance wasn’t good enough to win, so I think that’s it really.”

(Picture: Rob Noyes)