MATCH REPORT: Swindon Town (1) v (2) Leyton Orient

Swindon Town failed to deal with two dead-ball situations and paid the price as they fell to a 2-1 home defeat to Leyton Orient.
Twice Town failed to pick up Omar Beckles in the box and he punished them with a pair of simple finishes. Total Sport Swindon's Joe Acklam gives his match report in the aftermath of defeat.

Josh Davison scored his third in two matches to pull one back for Swindon late in the second-half, but it was not enough for an unlikely comeback.

The Robin’s play-off hopes hang by a thread with four games left to play, as they sit four points behind seventh place.

Ben Garner made two switches to the line-up that had swept Harrogate aside three days earlier, as the inured Rob Hunt and Mathieu Baudry made way for Akin Odimayo and Jake O’Brien.

Swindon started very strongly as within a minute Mandela Egbo had already shown Connor Wood a clean pair of heels and flashed a cross right across goal that neither Ellis Iandolo nor Louie Barry could reach.

Town continued to find space in the Orient backline as Barry hit a through ball for Jack Payne, but a poor touch allowed the defenders to catch up with him and scramble it out for a corner.

After an end-to-end opening twenty minutes, Leyton Orient were the ones to find the net as Beckles got around the back to head in Theo Archibald’s free-kick.

The visitor’s jubilance only lasted a few minutes as in the 23rd minute Hector Kyprianou received his second booking of the contest for scything down Barry as he attempted to start a counter-attack. 

The midfielder had already been booked five minutes earlier for dragging down Josh Davison on the halfway line, so the O’s would have to play the remaining 67 minutes with ten players.

After thirty five minutes temperatures really started to flair up as Barry and Darren Pratley got into a scuffle and a long brawl ensued, which eventually saw Barry, O’Brien, Archibald, Pratley, Shadrach Ogie, and Richie Wellens all receive yellow cards.

In the 50th minute Orient were denied what looked like a clear penalty as O’Brien dragged down Ruel Sotiriou in the box, but referee Sam Allison felt otherwise.

Four minutes later Leyton Orient and Beckles added their second after Town failed to clear a throw-in multiple times before the central defender tapped home.

After 73 minutes Swindon seemed to have finally found an opening as Louis Reed had space in the middle of the park and tried to slide through substitute Harry Parsons, but the ball came off the heels of Davison and didn’t find its way to the academy product.

With just over ten minutes to play a glimmer of hope emerged as Payne poked the ball behind the backline on the edge of the area and Davison ran in behind to cut the deficit in half.

This sparked something in Swindon which they had lacked in the previous 80 minutes and a mad scramble in the area almost led to O’Brien turning home, but his effort from close range was blocked.