Swindon Town

TWO goals in a minute set the platform for defeat for Swindon at Oldham, as they went down 2-1 at Boundary Park.

Despite Massimo Luongo's second-half strike, Town couldn't find a way through and earn a point.

Mark Cooper made three changes to his starting line-up at Boundary Park. John Swift and Andy Williams both dropped to the bench while there were starts for Michael Smith and Jon Obika. Nathan Thompson missed out again through injury while Nathan Byrne, who was suffering with an illness, was replaced by Ben Gladwin on the right flank.

A bright opening to the game was dominated by the visitors with Town’s only effort of note coming from Obika, who dragged a shot across goal and wide. The hosts made their most of their start in the tenth minute, when Mike Jones was picked out by a cross from the right and sidefooted home. Barely a minute later, Oldham made it two when Town gifted their opponents possession from the re-start. Conor Wilkinson was given the freedom to run unchallenged through on goal before slotting beyond Foderingham.

After a spell of possession, Ben Gladwin’s half-volley forced Kean into a smart save before a Town counter-attack, led by Massimo Luongo, ended with Obika seeing his shot blocked by a covering defender.

Jonathan Forte saw a third for Oldham chalked off for offside while arguably Town’s best chance came courtesy of Michael Smith who directed a header goalwards that was excellently pushed away by Kean.

Swindon began the second half positively with Louis Thompson, Jon Obika and Massimo Luongo all registering efforts on or off target.

Just past the hour mark, their toil was rewarded. Massimo Luongo took aim from the left-hand angle of the box and drove an effort goalwards. The ball pitched just in front of the diving Kean, skipped off the turf and flew beyond his grasp into the back of the net.

As the game moved into the final ten minutes, Town continued to press for an equaliser. A cross from the left fell perfectly for Andy Williams in the box but he couldn’t quite connect with a diving header and the ball was cleared to safety.

As the clock neared 90 minutes, Harry Toffolo was denied by Kean. A neat moving which involved Branco producing a sublime piece of skill to set the full-back through on goal ended with the Norwich loanee seeing his shot smartly saved by the Oldham 'keeper.