MATCH REPORT: Swindon (2) Crawley Town (1)

Jake Cain scored his first goal for Swindon as they ended the season with a 2-1 win over Scott Lindsey’s Crawley Town. Total Sport’s Joe Acklam reports from the County Ground.

The first half struggled to find any rhythm until four minutes to go when Charlie Austin fired home which was then followed by a scarcely believable free kick from Cain.

The second half was a tale of two penalties as first Dom Telford stuck his away, before Rushian Hepburn-Murphy saw his saved four minutes later.

Swindon finish the season with a win and avoid their worst ever points tally in the fourth tier to end up in 10th place in the League Two table.

Gavin Gunning elected to make two changes from Jody Morris’ last line-up as Austin and Tom Brewitt were restored to the starting XI, in place of Luke Jephcott and Harrison Minturn.

The first chance of any note came when Austin flicked the ball on to Hepburn-Murphy, with the ball bouncing up high he only managed to direct a tame effort straight at the Crawley goalkeeper.

A pair of Crawley corners caused trouble for Swindon as the first was dummied to let the ball run to Ben Gladwin, whose effort was deflected behind for another corner which was whipped onto the top of the bar and bounced behind.

On 20 minutes Saidou Khan turned well in midfield and laid the ball on to Austin, he flicked the ball first time into Jacob Wakeling, who teed up Cain, but a firm recovery challenge denied him getting a shot off.

Marcel Lavinier drove out of defence down the left and played a fine through ball to get Hepburn-Murphy in down the side, his shot from a tight angle was parried behind by Corey Addai.

With a drab first half meandering to a close, Jacob Wakeling flicked a header into a gap in the Crawley defence, Austin galloped away and held off Harry Ransom before burying his finish into the bottom corner.

With the crowd still settling down from the opener, Swindon won a free-kick mid-way through the Crawley half and Cain elected to have a go, he whipped it beyond the despairing dive of Addai and into the back of the net.

Straight after half-time Cain had a great run down the side of the box and looked to finish across Addai, but the ‘keeper got down well to deny him a second.

After 61 minutes Crawley reduced the advantage when Saidou Khan brought down Nick Tsaroulla in the area, giving the Red Devils a penalty, which Telford confidently stroked into the back of the net.

Minutes later Swindon had a penalty of their own when Hepburn-Murphy was chopped down in the area, he got up and took it himself, but Addai guessed right and got down quickly to make the save.

A Cain corner was well weighted onto the edge of the six-yard box where Tom Brewitt met it, but his header lacked power and allowed Addai to make the save.

In stoppage time Joe Tomlinson ran through the middle of Crawley and then laid the ball off to Luke Jephcott, he caught hold of his effort well and it went just wide of the mark.