Player Profile

Salisbury born and a boyhood County Ground attendee, Bycroft was a product of the Southampton youth academy who spent more than 14 years with the south coast club including six as a professional without making a first team appearance. During that time, he had loan spells at five different non-league clubs including Oxford City, and made a single appearance for England U19.

With Murphy Mahoney’s season ending injury, Swindon were looking for a new goalkeeper and were under transfer restrictions limiting them to ‘taking over’ contracts of players coming towards the end of their current deals. Bycroft fitted the bill, and linked up with the club on 12th January 2024, making his league debut the next day away at Crewe in a 2-1 defeat for Town. Two months and eleven games later, he was captaining the side - a fairly puzzling decision from interim manager Gav Gunning which he denied was about punishing vice-captain Frazer Blake-Tracy - who played in the match: Gunning instead saying: “It was just that I thought I should give it to Jack and build his confidence up or whatever.”

Whatever was going on in the dressing room, on the pitch Bycroft proved an able if not spectacular goalkeeper, and as the club’s first permanent first choice in some time, Swindon do at least stand to benefit from his development in a way that has not always been the case with a parade of loanee keepers. He remains under contract for the 2024 season and seems likely to be the number one, although Town’s new Assistant Manager Marcus Bignot has suggested that the club would like to sign another goalkeeper as competition, rather than using first year pro Redman Evans alone.

Playing Record

Senior

Career details

Club	Details
Southampton Southampton	2010 (academy) September 24th, 2018 (signed professional contract); transferred out (January 12th, 2024)
Weymouth Weymouth	September 12th, 2020 (loan); expired (rptd January 8th, 2021)
Dorchester Town Dorchester	January 4th, 2022 (loan); expired (rptd April 23rd, 2022)
Taunton Town Taunton Town	August 4th, 2022 (loan); expired (rptd May 3rd, 2023)
Aldershot Town Aldershot	August 31st, 2023 (loan); expired (rptd September 27th, 2023)
Oxford City Oxford City	November 4th, 2023 (loan); recalled from loan (January 12th, 2024)
Swindon Town Swindon	January 12th, 2024 (transferred in, free transfer)