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Match Reports

Eastleigh 2 Swindon Town 2

Austin and Khan score in friendly draw

22 July 2023

Match Reports

Eastleigh 2 Swindon Town 2

Austin and Khan score in friendly draw

22 July 2023

Two second-half goals for hosts Eastleigh saw Swindon Town held down in Hampshire as the two sides played out an entertaining 2-2 draw.

A first-half Charlie Austin penalty saw Town take the lead going into the break before Saidou Khan doubled the advantage with a brilliant effort in the 57th minute.

However, two late second-half strikes from Eastleigh's Scott Quigley and Enzio Boldewijn saw the Spitfires fight back to make honours even at full-time.

It was Swindon who started the brighter of the two sides, with an early opportunity for the lively Rushian Hepburn-Murphy forcing a good save from Eastleigh's Joe McDonnell after skipping past two challenges just a minute into the game.

Less than five minutes later and Swindon created another opportunity to open the scoring with Marcel Lavinier looking to find the far corner with his effort inside the Eastleigh penalty area, but the wing-back's effort could only graze the top of the crossbar.

A third chance came Town's way, with Hepburn-Murphy's powerful strike rattling the crossbar 17 minutes in, with the forward continuing to cause the Spitfires' defence problems.

First-half chances came later on for the hosts, with Paul McCallum connecting with a Nigel Atangana cross but his effort was comfortably claimed by Murphy Mahoney in the Swindon Town goal.

It was down the right-hand side where Town would next threaten, with Remeao Hutton firing towards goal 30 minutes in, but McDonnell climbed and produced a wonderful save to deny the attempt which looked destined to find the top corner.

5 minutes later and Swindon would get their deserved lead through Austin's composed penalty, finding the bottom left corner, with the skipper for the game giving Town a goal advantage going into the second 45 minutes.

Half Time: Eastleigh 0 Swindon 1

Eastleigh came out strong at the start of the second half, with recent substitute Aiden Barlow striking against the post just two minutes into the half as Swindon looked to double their lead.

This opportunity would appear 57 minutes in, as after an initial good spell of pressure from Austin and Dan Kemp, the ball fell to Khan 20 yards from goal who with the time and space on the edge of the Eastleigh box, curled in a fantastic effort into the far corner to make it 2-0 to Swindon.

With 20 minutes to go, Trialist B had the opportunity to give Swindon a third but his curled effort was just wide of the mark.

Shortly after, Eastleigh halved the deficit through the recent change of Scott Quigley who found the back of the net with a close-range header following several substitute changes for both sides.

Eastleigh would find their equaliser with eight minutes to go, as Boldewijn produced a neat finish to find the bottom-right corner of Conor Brann's goal as the score finished even in rainy conditions.

Following this draw, Town now look ahead to next weekend's home pre-season fixture against Championship side Plymouth Argyle.

 

Eastleigh FC: McDonnell; Clampin, Atangana (Taylor 45), Martin (c), Carter, McCallum (Quigley 69), Boldewijn, Langston (Bragg 81), Hodson, Nwabuokei (Rutherford 69), Trialist E (Barlow 45)
Goals: Quigley 75, Boldewijn 82
Subs not used: Stock, Chalwell, Simpson, Hughes

Swindon Town: Mahoney (Brann 78); Hutton (58), Blake-Tracy (Hart 67), McEachran (Brown 58), Khan (Cain 58), Kemp (Darcy 58), Hepburn-Murphy (Wakeling 45), Brewitt, Minturn, Lavinier (Trialist B 58), Austin (Trialist A 58)
Goals: Austin 35 (pen), Khan (57)
Sub not used: Adeloye


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