Swindon will enter the hat for the second round of the FA Cup alongside Cheltenham after a 1-1 draw at Whaddon Road.
Despite taking the lead in second-half stoppage time through Jerry Yates, Town were pegged back instantly by Alex Addai who scored two minutes after Town took the lead.
In another dominant performance at the Johnny Rocks Stadium, the visitors were forced to settle for a draw despite dominating the game.
First Half
Town’s first chance, and the first chance of the half, came on 17 minutes – an incisive move from back to front, starting with Steven Benda saw the ball move through Baudry, Jaiyesimi and Doughty before DJ played through to Woolery.
He squared towards Yates but Ben Tozer, managed to flick the ball away from the Town striker and into the hands of Scott Flinders.
Three minutes later, Jaiyesimi and Woolery played the same roles, in provider and chaser – the only thing that prevented the latter from being a goalscorer was the hand of Flinders once again.
Cheltenham weren’t without threat – despite Swindon’s ascendancy. Luke Varney proved a nuisance on 33 minutes getting in between Zeki Fryers and Steven Benda – the ball ricocheted out to Varney but Benda was up quickly to catch the veteran striker’s left-footed effort.
Michael Doughty was the man that worked the best chance of the remaining 15 minutes – he opened up his body onto his weaker foot and chipped the ball over the top to Yates. However, the young loanee had to wait an age for the ball to bounce off the turf as it seemed to hold up and his shot didn’t have the desired contact, or enough to beat the Cheltenham keeper.
Second Half
Swindon’s incisive football carried on into the second period and they began to turn the screw on the home side’s back three – a well-worked free-kick routine on the edge of the box resulted in Jerry Yates firing a blistering effort towards goal but a flying Cheltenham body got in the way.
That was the theme of the half – Swindon so close but thwarted at the last. Another training ground set-piece was floated, by Doughty, to Dion Donohue who stood up a cross to the back post. Yates was stretching but made contact; however, his header struck the post and bounced away.
Strikes from the edge of the box fell to Woolery, Yates and Jayesimi all to no avail. On 74 minutes, the visiting Robins thought they had the lead. Jerry Yates poked home Doughty’s disguised pass but the linesman’s flag ruled it out.
The pressure intensified but as the fourth official’s board went up for added time it looked like the game would head to a replay and then it looked like it wouldn’t, and then it looked like it would.
Yates picked up the ball 20 yards out, chopped onto his left foot and blasted a shot past Flinders sparking pandemonium in the away end. The visitors looked like they’d won it but this game had one final cruel twist.
Alex Addai benefited from an unfortunate ricochet and fired home in similarly clinical fashion to Yates only a minute earlier. Heartbreak for Swindon who deserved to enter the hat for the next round, on their own rather than sharing the ball in the draw.
