Player Profile

Bringing in a new striker on a two-year deal and handing them the number 9 shirt suggested a significant degree of confidence that Town’s data driven recruitment model had identified a gem in nomadic Ayr United striker Tomi Adeloye. He certainly looked the part at a burly 6’ 2, and coming into his prime at 26 years old. As it was, things went wrong very quickly for the former Barnet and Ebbsfleet man.

He started Town’s first game of the season - the 3-0 defeat at Harrogate - but was substituted in the 63rd minute, and never started another league game for Town. Whilst he didn’t show much on the pitch in his substitute appearances to merit an extended run, it still seemed a little strange that he was jettisoned so quickly. Whilst he made a further 12 league appearances from the bench, none of them involved his introduction any earlier than the 73rd minute and most were beyond the 80th.

On one substitute appearance at Barrow in December, Adeloye briefly became the target of online abuse as he failed to put Town 2-0 up with a one on one chance - it looked like he was caught in two minds as to whether to shoot early or try to go past the keeper and ended up essentially dribbling the ball into the keeper like a player left unattended on Fifa as a controller battery died. It reflected a player at rock bottom confidence, but he did receive support from former Town striker Jan Aage Fjortoft - himself no stranger to a goal drought - on Twitter.

It took until February 4th for Adeloye to get his first goal in Town colours - sweeping home from close range with his first touch for a consolation goal against Newport County in Jody Morris’ first game as Town boss. If it briefly seemed that the arrival of Morris might turn Adeloye’s Town career around, it didn’t last long as he was rewarded for his first Town goal by being passed over for introduction from the bench in favour of first Luke Jephcott and then academy scholar Abu Kanu in the very next game. He played ten minutes of football between 25th February and the end of the season, so whilst he was under contract for the 2023/24 season, it would have been a surprise if he remained in the club’s plans under new manager Michael Flynn.

As it was, he joined Scottish Championship side Partick Thistle on loan for the season. After a slow start, he scored 8 goals in 21 appearances for Partick before picking up a serious injury that ended his season early. He was not offered a new contract by Swindon the following summer.

Playing Record

Senior

Career details

Club	Details
Allstar Rangers Allstar Rangers	2007 (youth)
Chelsea Chelsea	2009 (trial)
Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic	April 2009 (youth) ; released (2013)
Millwall Millwall	rptd December 13th, 2013 (youth scholarship); released (rptd March 14th, 2014)
Stoke City Stoke City	rptd July 8th, 2014 (signed professional contract); released (rptd June 10th, 2015)
Macclesfield Town Macclesfield	rptd January 15th, 2015 (loan)
Colchester United Colchester United	cs 2015 (trial)
Chelmsford City Chelmsford	rptd September 4th, 2015
Dover Athletic Dover Athletic	rptd November 25th, 2015
Leatherhead Leatherhead	December 2015
Welling United Welling	rptd February 19th, 2016
Leatherhead Leatherhead	April 2016 ; released (rptd November 5th, 2016)
Chester Chester	December 2016 (trial)
Altrincham Altrincham	January 12th, 2017 (unattached); released (February 2nd, 2017)
FC United of Manchester FC United of Manchester	rptd March 14th, 2017
St. Albans City St. Albans	rptd September 12th, 2017
Hartlepool United Hartlepool United	rptd October 2nd, 2017
Whitehawk Whitehawk	April 2018
Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers	cs 2018 (trial)
Dagenham and Redbridge Dagenham & Redbridge	rptd August 10th, 2018 ; released (2018/9)
Ebbsfleet United Ebbsfleet United	July 2019 (trial)
Ebbsfleet United Ebbsfleet United	rptd October 5th, 2019 (unattached)
East Kilbride East Kilbride	rptd December 18th, 2020
Barnet Barnet	rptd February 24th, 2021 (unattached); released (2020/1)
Ayr United Ayr United	rptd July 1st, 2021 (unattached); released (2021/2)
Swindon Town Swindon	rptd July 15th, 2022 (unattached); released (rptd May 2nd, 2024)
Partick Thistle Partick Thistle	July 27th, 2023 (loan); contract terminated (rptd March 9th, 2024)