Match report: Swindon Town 0-1 Newport County.

Swindon Link football columnist Alfie Howlett reports on this weekend's STFC game against Newport

A late Dion Conroy own goal left Swindon's promotion ambitions hanging by a thread.

It was a cruch clash for both teams at the County Ground in which neither side could afford defeat. Coming into the contest the 2 teams were separated by just 1 point. Newport in 8th and Swindon in 9th. This was reflected on the pitch with nothing to separate two very similar sides. However just when the game was looking to finish a frustrating stalemate the visitors broke Town hearts with a goal out of nowhere.

Swindon had just the one change from the previous fixture with midfield maestro Louis Reed returning from suspension at the expense of Ricky Aguiar. Meanwhile Newport lined up with the league's leading marksman Dom Telford on the bench following a 7 game goalless streak. The game got underway with both teams struggling to go fluently through the phases. The first notable effort came from Jack Payne after he let fly from long range resulting in Joe Day pushing away the powerful strike. 3 minutes later an excellent Ellis Iandolo run saw the ball fall to Louis Reed who fired over from 20 yards. Just past the half hour mark a Louie Barry cross found Jonny Williams who could only find the outstretched Joe Day with his half volley. However 5 minutes before half time Swindon had the ball in the net after Josh Davison tapped home a superb Iandolo ball. Unfortunately for Town the celebrations were cut short with the raising of the linesman's flag. In stoppage time another Iandolo ball found Jonny Williams coming away from goal. Despite the angle the Welshman's header looped just shy of the post. And with that the 2 teams went in at the break level.

The second half was a tough watch to say the least. The 2 teams were more or less clones of each other. Both played pleasing football on the eye until they made to the opposition box where they just ran out of ideas. On 72 minutes Williams lost the ball just outside his own box allowing Telford to curl an effort which was parried away by Wollacott. With the minutes ticking away it was looking like it would be another underwhelming day at the office for Town. But in the 90th minute the day went from bad to worse for Town thanks to some awful defending. A long ball down the touchline saw Finn Azaz on his toes and Mathieu Baudry on his heels. As Azaz got to the ball Jojo Wollacott found himself stranded in no man's land as the Villa loanee rounded the Ghanaian international. Azaz then put it across the face of the goal for Telford to tap home only for Dion Conroy to score an own goal to hand the Exiles all 3 points.

The result leaves Swindon 4 points adrift of the play-offs and automatics all most certainly out of the question. Although Town have a game in hand a top 7 finish feels incredibly unlikely with Town requiring mistakes from rivals as well as a run of results themselves.