Swindon grab their second win of the season against Burton in classic goal fest.
Jordan Stevens scored on his debut and Brett Pitman opened his Swindon account in an entertaining 4-2 victory against Burton Albion.
Stevens, Pitman and captain Mathieu Baudry all scored in the first half, while Jonny Smith scored in the second half to put the game beyond Albion.
Burton did reply with goals from Stephen Quinn and Lucas Akins, but Town controlled the game and secured a second consecutive home victory in League One
First Half:
Jack Payne had the first real chance in the game, nipping the ball off the toes of the Burton defence, before firing low to goalkeeper Ben Garratt’s near post.
Town really turned the screw soon after, Jack Payne driving through the heart of the defence, before releasing Jordan Stevens to fire low into the bottom left hand corner of the goal.
Wellens’ side were relentless in the counter-attack, swooping on Burton’s defence like the Red Arrows.
Summer signing Brett Pitman came inches away from opening his account for the Reds, bringing a
The attacking quartet of Pittman, Jonny Smith, Jack Payne and Jordan Stevens were all over the Burton defence like a rash and collectively forced a mistake and a chance for Matt Smith.
Payne intercepted the ball in the Burton defence’s half and cut the ball back to the lurking Smith, whose deflected effort almost creeped over Garratt.
Albion came very close to equalising against the run of play.
Lucas Akins crept behind the back four and found himself one-on-one with only the charging Matej Kovar to beat; however, the goalkeeper stayed on his feet right to the end and stopped Akins from rounding him – all of the above came within the first 15 minutes.
After a slight lull in the match, Swindon started to turn the screw again and doubled their advantage in impressive style.
Pitman opened his Town scoring account by arriving late into the penalty area and incisively finishing into the bottom corner first time from a cutback.
Before the previous sentence was even finished, Town had a third.
Captain Mathieu Baudry charged into the penalty area and perfectly met Jack Payne’s beautiful in-swinging corner and headed in from close range.
Almost out of nowhere Burton got themselves back into the contest.
Town appeared to have defended the corner perfectly, however, the headed clearance dropped to Stephen Quinn 25-yards out who connected on the volley and sent the ball into the bottom left-hand corner.
Rejuvenated by Quinn’s finish, Albion looked dangerous in the closing stages of the first half, but the Town went into the second-half with a two goal cushion.
Second Half:
It took 15 minutes for Swindon to restore the three-goal cushion.
It came through the Smith pairing coming together perfectly.
The tenacious Matt Smith won the ball back on the edge of the penalty area, before sliding Jonny Smith through with a perfectly disguised pass to finish past the stranded Garratt.
Albion got more into the game as the second half progressed and scored to bring the deficit back to two goals.
Left-back, Colin Daniel combined strong running with a precisive cross to find Lucas Akins at the back post, and the striker made no mistake with the header.
Akins nearly halved Town’s lead immediately after, when his flicked header from a dangerous free kick fell into the grateful arms of Kovar.
Substitute Jack Roles tried his luck from long range but his effort was calmly seen past the post by Kovar.
Swindon remained professional and saw out the victory to secure another vital three points.
