SWINDON TOWN 2

NEWPORT COUNTY 1

By Peter Mitchell

The Swindon crowd would have been pleasantly surprised to see Kaiyne Woolery returning as one of the five changes from the defeat by Woking – and they would have been delighted by the performance that he put in. Even though this was his first league start for 8 months he showed bags of energy and pace throughout and was a constant threat to the visiting defence.

Once again Town followed their manager’s instructions and started quickly and intensely. After just a minute’s play Michael Doughty, out on the left wing, controlled a cross field pass from Kyle Knoyle, turned and fired a great opener from a very acute angle. Swindon, having the advantage of very strong tricky wind, dominated play, but couldn’t improve their lead before the break. Elijah Adebayo was winning a lot more balls in the air but should still have done better with a couple of good chances.

The second half was a complete reversal with County having the weather advantage and drawing level after only two minutes. Ellis Iandolo should have done more to stop a County move progressing down their right, and when the ball was crossed, Padraig Amond headed it home.

Fortunately, from then on, although having several chances, the Exiles’ attack was not firing on all cylinders and they failed to capitalise.

Swindon continued to break forward well, and Doughty should have done better when he dithered over a pass to Woolery that would have put him through on goal. However, he was given another similar opportunity with eight minutes left, and this time Woolery rounded the keeper to finish splendidly and cap fine performance.

With three minutes left and several minutes of stoppage time remaining, Richie Wellens substituted the star man and brought on Olly Lancashire to bolster the rear-guard. However, with one attacker less to worry about, this merely encouraged County to drive Swindon back and put even more pressure on their beleaguered defence.

Town just about deserved all three points and, all in all, it was another encouraging display, that gave them three league wins on the bounce and moved them into 11th spot. For next week’s long trip to Grimsby, unless forced to by injuries, I can’t see much reason to change this line up, and the creative Steve Alzate is an excellent Ace up the sleeve for the manager. We still need more fire power, an experienced central defender and a defensive left back, so let’s hope there are some New Year bargains available to the Chairman in early January.