Swindon came into their first round tie against Darlington 65 places above the opposition, but the FA Cup is certainly a competition not to be taken lightly.
A brace from Adam Campbell was enough to secure a second-round place for the Quakers, despite Brett Pitman drawing Town level on forty minutes.
First-half:
Town naturally started the game with the majority of possession and nearly took the lead after nine minutes.
Ellis Iandolo was fouled on the edge of the Darlington box with Jack Payne taking the resulting set-piece. Payne’s ball found the head of Iandolo, but his powerful header was palmed away by Saltmer.
It was the Darlington keeper again to the rescue three minutes later, when Brett Pitman’s cute pass over the back-four found Joel Grant but Grant’s shot was saved by Saltmer and cleared to safety.
Darlington were the first team to have the ball in the net when Luke Charman finished into the corner but the assistant referee’s flag was firmly up and the goal was disallowed.
The visitors then scored one that did count with Adam Campbell latching onto a misplaced header from Jonathan Grounds to put past Kovar.
Ten minutes later, Town were back on level terms with Matt Smith playing a superb ball through to Joel Grant, who laid it on a plate for Brett Pitman to score his second goal for the club.
Second-half:
Despite a Town onslaught in the first ten minutes of the second period, the boys couldn’t find a way past Saltmer. Joel Grant and Matt Smith both went close to putting Town ahead.
On sixty minutes, Darlington took the lead with Campbell getting his second of the match with his deflected shot wrong-footing Kovar and rolling into the net.
Town saw the introduction of Hallam Hope and Rob Hunt who tried to inject a bit of energy into the side but a sturdy Darlington defence made sure that wasn’t going to happen.
Late efforts from Hope and Matt Smith did not trouble Saltmer in the Darlington net and it was the Quakers who will be in the second-round draw on Monday.
