Swindon Town

TOWN were held to a 2-2 draw by Oldham Athletic at The County Ground, despite going in front with ten minutes to play.

A late leveller from the visitors denied Swindon all three points after Andy Williams had put the Town ahead, earning both sides a share of the spoils.

Mark Cooper named an unchanged matchday squad, with on-loan defender Jack Stephens still absent through illness. Jonathan Obika kept his place alongside Michael Smith in a two-pronged attack.

The game was just five minutes old when Smith steered a volley narrowly wide of goal. Massimo Luongo and Nathan Byrne exchanged passes down the right flank and the latter picked out the striker inside the box only for Town’s number 9 to put his effort wide.

Yaser Kasim also struck a free kick over the crossbar before Louis Thompson dragged a shot the wrong side of Paul Rachubka’s right-hand post.

Midway through the half, the visitors took the lead out of the blue. A free-kick from around 30 yards was pushed square to James Dayton who strode up to the ball and, with pin-point accuracy, drilled it high into the top corner of the net with Wes Foderingham well beaten.

Minutes later however, the Town drew level. A corner from the Town left was swung into the danger area before dropping to the turf. Obika was the quickest to react and prodded the ball into the net from close range to take both sides into the break level.

Early in the second half, Dominic Poleon forced a neat save from Wes Foderingham as both sides struggled to break the other down.

Then, with ten minutes to play, Swindon managed to edge in front. Nathan Byrne picked the ball up on the right wing just inside the Oldham half. Surging forward and inside his marker, he looked up and poked the ball into space ahead of substitute Andy Williams. The striker raced onto the through-ball and with a first-time effort arrowed the ball from the angle into the roof of the net.

Then, just as in the first half, the scores were level minutes later. A free-kick was clipped into the Town box. Swindon failed to clear their lines and as the ball was helped back across the edge of the six yard box, Amari Morgan-Smith was on hand to bundle home the leveller.