IT MIGHT seem to strange to say that this was a welcome point against bottom-of-the-league Chesterfield, but it really was, writes Peter Mitchell.

Swindon Town came into the game on the back of six straight wins so confidence was high.

The line-up was the same as for the convincing FA Cup victory over Dartford other than Keshi Anderson and Kaiyne Woolery replacing Paul Mullin and the injured Donal McDermott.

However, nothing was to come easy on this drab autumn afternoon and things started to go wrong as early as the third minute when Amine Linganzi limped off with a sudden hamstring problem.

His replacement Johnny Goddard almost opened the scoring with his first touch but his powerful drive was tipped round the post by Joe Anyon.

Town were robbed of an obvious penalty in the 10th minute. Anyon was slow getting rid of the ball and Woolery quickly closed him down. Both players went to ground near the edge of the box with the ball spinning back towards the goal line.

Anyon then clearly prevented the Town attacker from getting to the ball with referee Lee Collins seemingly oblivious to the vehement calls for a blatant foul.

Afterwards we learned that the fourth official had immediately told the referee that Woolery had been impeded.

It was no surprise that for the remainder of the half Anyon became the pantomime villain and was booed whenever he got anywhere near the ball.

Swindon suffered a further setback after 25 minutes when Harry Smith was involved in a heavy clash of heads. He appeared groggy and was sporting a large lump on his forehead so was replaced by Luke Norris in another unplanned switch.

On the half-hour Norris almost scored when his header from a Matt Taylor cross seemed to cross the goal line, but once again Town's appeals were to no avail.

Swindon deservedly went ahead two minutes after the restart when Timi Elsnik curled a lovely shot into the Town End goal from the edge of the box – his third goal in a week.

Chesterfield were pressing slightly more than in the first half and worryingly were finding far too much space on the Swindon left flank.

In the 56th minute the equaliser came when striker Kristian Dennis was found unmarked and easily stroked the ball under Reice Charles-Cook.

Despite numerous heavy tackles by the visitors it wasn't until the hour mark, when Woolery was literally wrestled to the ground, that the visitors received a booking.

The Spireites were now much more in the game and in the 72nd minute Town went behind to a stunning goal from Jak McCourt, who let loose a spectacular shot from 35 yards that left Charles-Cook totally helpless.

A true contender for any League Two Goal of the Season award.

Matt Taylor had been involved in a raft of corners and free kicks but most of his deliveries were well short of his usual high standard. He did go close five minutes from the end when in open play he hit a low shot from 25 yards which was tipped around the post.

Swindon threw everything at Chesterfield in the last quarter of an hour but most of the action was aerial in nature and the experienced visiting defenders won those battles fairly easily.

When hope had all but disappeared Town got out of jail – and justifiably so – in the fifth minute of added time.

The referee's woeful performance was summed up when he awarded a very generous penalty after Norris went down in the box.

Full credit to Luke who was subjected to non-stop gamesmanship while waiting to take the kick (I lost track of how many players were booked in this last chaotic piece of play).

He remained calm throughout and then coolly placed the ball in the back of the net.

A disappointing result but a spirited performance by a Town team who had little go their way on the day.

Manager Dave Flitcroft's squad is now showing the resilience and versatility that we probably wouldn't have seen a few weeks ago.