Swindon Town

TOWN slipped to a 2-1 defeat at MK Dons despite taking a lead into the half time break.

Jon Obika put the visitors in front early on but two goals in the second half condemned Town to an away-day defeat.

Mark Cooper named an unchanged matchday squad at Stadium:MK – Jon Obika kept his place alongside Michael Smith in attack while Andy Williams had to be content with a place on the bench after scoring in Tuesday’s 3-0 win at Chesterfield.

The visitors made the perfect start, with Obika opening the scoring after just six minutes. Nathan Byrne came out on top in a key 50/50 challenge midway inside the Dons half and set Michael Smith free on the right. With Obika completely unmarked in the middle, his strike partner rolled the ball across the box and gave him the simplest of tasks of tapping into the net.

Another of Tuesday’s scorers, Yaser Kasim, tried to repeat his trick from the Proact stadium but this time, couldn’t keep his free-kick on target. Michael Smith had a chance of his own when he was played through on goal but Dons ‘keeper David Martin was quickly off his line to get a hand on the ball and push Town’s number nine away from the danger area.

At the other end, the Dons were creating chances but without giving Foderingham too much to do. Despite turning a goal-bound header behind for a corner inside the first minute, the Swindon stopper watched as several members of the home side registered shots off target.

It took the Dons just five minutes to level matters in the second half. After withstanding a period of early pressure from the home side they finally made the breakthrough thanks to Dele Alli who found the top corner of Foderingham’s goal from the edge of the area.

Ten minutes later, the home side hit the front. Ben Reeves’ delivery from a free-kick on the right was flicked on into the six-yard box where Antony Kay reacted quickest to stab the ball past Foderingham.

Like the Dons in the first half, it was now Swindon’s turn to enjoy efforts on goal without really testing Martin. Toffolo headed wide from Byrne’s cross while Dons goalscorer, Kay, did brilliantly to prevent Jon Obika getting a clean strike on goal inside the box.

Jack Stephens then embarked on a marauding run forward which saw him slice through the Dons defence. As he found himself through on goal, Obika was alongside him and instinctively pulled the trigger but Martin made a comfortable save.

As the visitors pushed forward in search of an equaliser, gaps appeared at the back and Afobe almost added to the lead when he found himself clean through but fired into the side-netting.

In injury time, Town somehow managed to keep the deficit at one. Substitute Will Grigg was denied by a block inside the area then Foderingham produced a triple save on the line to keep the ball away from goal.