WE always knew that Swindon would need to win some games 'ugly' in order to get out of League Two – this game against Wycombe Wanderers was one of them, writes Peter Mitchell.

The Chairboys came to the County Ground on Saturday on a good run and unbeaten away from home in 13 matches. Swindon made two changes from Tuesday's defeat, bringing in Harry Smith (back from Millwall) in an enforced change for injured Luke Norris and Donal McDermott for Paul Mullin in wide midfield.

Footballing conditions were awful with a gale blowing towards the Stratton Bank for the entire match. In front of a decent crowd of more than 7,000 Town started brightly with the wind at their backs.

Town's early pressure paid dividends when a great lofted ball from Matt Taylor was brilliantly put away by Smith.

Wycombe were counter attacking effectively and the tricky Cowan-Hall was getting in some good crosses but Adebayo Akinfenwa was being marshalled closely by the Town defence.

Wanderers keeper Scott Gordon's kicking rarely reached the halfway line. Nevertheless in the 33rd minute, after a good move by the Town, he made an excellent save from Keshi Anderson.

At half-time Wycombe must have been fairly happy to find themselves just the single goal down – with the wind advantage to come.

It didn't take long for the onslaught to commence and in the 49th minute Akinfenwa was denied by a good Reice Charles-Cook save.

In the 72nd minute Charles-Cook made another good stop at his near post.

He was coping well with the adverse conditions and his handling and distribution was almost faultless.

Only a minute later he had to be at his best when Wycombe keeper Gordon decided to take advantage of the wind and have a pop at goal himself. His mammoth kick bounced in the Town six-yard box and Charles-Cook reacted brilliantly to palm a difficult ball over his own bar.

Incidentally, I would keep Charles-Cook in the side now that Lawrence Vigouroux has finished his ban on the basis of fairness and form - he's made one slip in four games.

It would also show Vigs that he's not indispensable especially when you consider that he has had a few disciplinary misdemeanours now which have hurt the team.

About 80 per cent of the play was now taking place in the Town half and keeping possession when Swindon got the ball was key.

I lost count of the number of times 'Hold on to it' came to my mind – easy to say when you are sat comfortably sheltered in the stands.

Wycombe didn't really take advantage of the wind, managing just two attempts on goal against six for the Town in the first half.

Boss Dave Flitcroft replaced McDermott with Mullin with only five minutes left and it took him only a couple of minutes to test Gordon with a rasping shot on one of Town's rare ventures into the visitors' area.

Flitcroft appears to favour the no-nonsense McDermott but some of his tackling does border on the reckless.

In injury time Wycombe mounted a succession of late attacks, but in the end it was three well-earned points for the Town, moving them up to seventh place.

The performance wasn't pretty to watch but Swindon gave 100 per cent and were utterly determined to keep a clean sheet.

Next up is a tricky trip to a resurgent Port Vale on Saturday.

News of Luke Norris is that he has now seen a specialist concerning his recurring shoulder problem. Let's hope Professor Funk, who has devised a special treatment regime, gets Luke back in the groove.