Sky Bet League One

Shrewsbury Town 3

Swindon Town 3

Swindon gained their first away league point of the season in dramatic fashion at Shrewsbury, writes Peter Mitchell.

Despite twice trailing by two goals they stuck at their task and, in the end, thoroughly deserved a draw – something you wouldn’t have said at half time.

After his good performance, keeping a clean sheet in their mid-week cup game, Swindon gave a league debut to goalkeeper Joe Fryer.

Unfortunately his start couldn’t have been worse as he should have dealt much better with a cross into his six-yard box after only six minutes, where Aaron Pierre easily headed home.

Town then quickly went further behind as the defence kept up the shambolic display we are getting used to.

This time Matt Millar converting with a diving header at the same right-hand post.

An excellent individual piece of skill by Joel Grant inside the box then got Swindon back into the game just before the break.

Swindon played much more fluently after the interval and began to piece together multi-move attacks, but were still finding it difficult to create clear cut chances and shots.

Jonny Smith was a constant worry to the home defence with his devastating pace, but was unable to deliver any end product.

Town were giving the ball away far too cheaply, not helped by the driving rain, and this was highlighted ten minutes into the second half.

After a Jack Payne mis-pass, Shrewsbury broke away and a pull-back found Dave Edwards totally unmarked on the edge of the box. His finish gave Fryer no chance at all.

Once again Swindon had a mountain to climb, but Hallam Hope gave them some when he struck a fine angled shot round the goalie on the hour.

Shrewsbury managed by former Town player Sam Ricketts were employing poor tactics and, instead of continuing to pressurise the Swindon defence, decided to sit deep and soak up the visitor’s attacks.

It almost worked but, with Swindon having all the play and making constant forays into the Shrews’ box, the Robins got their deserved equaliser in injury time, Matt Smith’s shot finding the net courtesy of a deflection.

Joel Grant gave easily his best performance to date in a red shirt, with Paul Caddis once again performing well when in his attacking role.

Even without a prolific scorer up front, this Swindon team has lots of goals in midfield and out wide – but it was very evident from the start of the season that the defence was going to be a major problem – and that hasn’t changed.

This team should not be struggling, it should easily be holding its own.

So once again we see the fickle side of the game all too evident at Swindon.

Richie Wellens decides to leave, after pledging his loyalty so recently, and after questioning why any supporter would even think he would be considering leaving.

He built a squad of around 26 players, all of whom I believe he personally selected – so how many did he expect a League One club to be able to finance?

Now the managerial merry-go-round has turned again and another well-travelled coach has stepped off, this time in the form of former Leeds United midfielder, John Sheridan.

As always, only time will measure his success, but his win rate at his ten former clubs certainly isn’t overwhelming.

Anyway, once again, let’s get behind the manager and his team because they surely have it in them to be up there challenging, and not merely making up the numbers.