TOWN tasted defeat for the second time this pre-season, going down 2-0 at Forest Green Rovers.
A number of senior players returned to the starting line-up including the likes of Darren Ward, Wes Foderingham and James Collins.
After a slow start, the game burst into life after fifteen minutes. The hosts moved forward and played a ball in behind the Town defence. Swindon’s back-line misjudged the offside trap they had set, releasing Andy Mangan and Yan Klukowski clean through on goal. The latter squared for the former who was denied brilliantly by the sprawling Wes Foderingham.
At the other end, Andy Williams and Alex Pritchard fired at the goalkeeper and wide respectively. Just short of the half-hour, the home side took the lead. Moments beforehand, Swindon had done well to fashion a chance for Pritchard to fire straight at Sam Russell. As Forest Green broke away, Taylor was played in behind the Town back four and was brought down by Foderingham.
Klukowski stepped up and cooly stroked the ball into the corner. Minutes later, the hosts had doubled their lead. Alex Smith gave the ball away in midfield where it was quickly snaffled by Andy Mangan. The striker strode forward before blasting the ball into the corner of the net from the edge of the box.
A number of changes in the second half failed to ignite Town and the home side continued to look the more dangerous going forward. James Collins and Andy Williams could only fire wide while Koroma almost added a third for Dave Hockaday’s side but headed off-target when he probably should have found the net.
As the game entered the final fifteen minutes, substitute Daniel Devine was picked out well by Paul Caddis but headed over the crossbar.
Another substitute, Leigh Bedwell had to be alert to stop Ben Wright from adding to the hosts’ tally, making a smart save low down to his left to push the ball behind.