NEWPORT COUNTY 2

SWINDON TOWN 1

IN the early Saturday kick-off, rivals Mansfield finally managed to win a game at David Flitcroft’s tenth attempt, meaning Swindon already knew nothing less than three points was needed from their relatively short trip to Newport, writes Peter Mitchell and Mark Kirkman.

Olly Lancashire failed to recover from his injuries aggravated on Tuesday night and Rollin Menayese filled his place at the heart of defence. Youngster Scott Twine retained his place in attack after a promising debut against Yeovil.

The least said about the first-half the better, when Town conceded two very poor goals and seemed incapable of putting any real moves together or mount any pressure on the home defence. They tinkered with formation after half-an-hour by moving Twine to play behind twin strikers Kaiyne Woolery and Marc Richards, but this had little impact.

Considering the importance of putting in a good performance, and then going in two goals down, this was truly a very poor 45-minute display, as concurred by manager Phil Brown afterwards.

For both home goals, scored by Padraig Amond and former Town trainee Ben Tozer, Swindon yet again failed to man-mark, chose not to challenge, and conceded far too much space.

At the interval Woolery and Ben Purkiss were replaced by Paul Mullin and Donal McDermott and instantly there was an injection of more urgency and enthusiasm.

Immediately after the restart Town were on the front foot. Mullin had a shot tipped round the post, and both Twine and Ollie Banks went close.

On 56 minutes a volley from McDermott hit the top of the bar and five minutes later he clipped in a perfect delivery that Mullin just touched on into the net. Things went backwards again five minutes later when Menayese was dismissed for a second bookable offence.

Town keeper Stuart Moore played well and made a number of good stops, before contributing to a bit of drama during injury time. He popped up in the County box to add weight to a final onslaught, but the ball broke free to Tozer who, from around the half way line, saw his shot at the empty Swindon goal brush the outside of the post.

County had managed just one win in their previous fourteen games, had nothing to play for and yet for the most part seemed far more up for it than Swindon who, with a win under their belt, would have still been in with a chance of the play-offs.

This defeat must finally have derailed the hopes of even the most optimistic supporter. Mathematically they may still have a chance but realistically they just aren’t good enough.

Unfortunately, there some disappointing scenes at the end when frustration took over and some heated exchanges took place between Town players and a few of the 950 fans who had made the trip.

Hopefully we are wrong but it seems the season will now limp slowly along to a rather mundane finish.

How disappointing for a team that really should have done better. Purkiss, Lancashire, Dunne and Norris (when fit), plus you know who, have played consistently well at this level all season, but hugely inconsistent performances from too many of their fellow team-mates have been their undoing.