Crawley 0 Swindon Town 4

On Saturday, Swindon found themselves pitted against much more accommodating opposition, in Crawley Town, writes Peter Mitchell.

Unlike Stevenage, the hosts didn’t try to get nine men behind the ball, and allowed their visitors to play their more open flowing game, with Swindon also managing to up their tempo somewhat.

Town took the lead within the first five minutes through who else but – no prizes for guessing – Eoin Doyle. Anthony Grant surged into the box and gave the perfect pass to Swindon’s prolific scorer. Doyle was to add two others, each side of the interval, to bring his tally to 13 in 13 league games. He must be Ritchie Wellen’s best piece of business by a mile, and we can only hope that there is no recall from Bradford in January.

Both Swindon’s attacking substitutes provided assists with Keshi Anderson putting Doyle though to complete his hat-trick, and Kaiyne Woolery crossing for Jerry Yates to complete the scoring.

In the end Town were rarely troubled and coasted to their highest away win for several seasons. Their twenty shots, and good all-round individual displays, were a welcome improvement and helped Swindon move up into fifth place. It is no surprise that the return of Zeki Fryers from injury has coincided with these two latest wins.

The manager’s midweek interview remarks appeared more considered and rational towards the supporters after his outburst on Tuesday, and I’m sure the 600-odd travelling supporters at Crawley appreciated it. Swindon fans don’t pay £20 or more to go to games hoping to have a good moan, but they are entitled to do so if the entertainment isn’t to their liking.

Next Saturday, Town entertain Walsall and with kids aged under-11 entitled to free tickets and with their upturn in form, the club is hoping for a upturn in attendance as well.