1. Freestone
2. Price
3. Howard
4. Bound
5. Todd
6. Roberts
7. Romo &
8. Cusack
9. Watkin
10. Verschave #
11. Lacey

    ---

12. Davies
13. Jenkins &75
14. Boyd
15. Savarese #45
16. Coates

 Swindon

1. Mildenhall
2. Robinson M
3. Davis
4. Hewlett
5. Reddy
6. Alexander
7. Heywood
8. Reeves
9. Robinson S
10. Woan
11. O'Halloran

    ---

12. Griemink
13. van der Linden
14. Grazioli
15. Macareavey
16. Invincible

Today’s game was played in a bitterly cold wind after some overnight snow, which had cleared by mid-morning. O’Leary failed a fitness test and was replaced by Todd. The full team being Rog, Price, Todd, Bound, Howard, Cusack, Romo, Lacey, Roberts, Watkin and Verschave. Boyd was again on the bench, with talk of him on a 900 pound appearance bonus and that he is on 2,000 per week which after 1 more game doubles to 4,000. With ten minutes to go to kick off it seemed the away following was going to be low, but a last minute rush brought us up to the near capacity 750 allocation, any more would have seen the open seats behind the goal being used.

We started brightly and in the first minute their number 3 was rightly booked for clattering Romo on the touchline. First blood nearly to the Swans when a deep cross from the right found Howard coming in from the left, his header beating the keeper only to rebound off the post. The first half was entertaining with the game flowing from end to end without any real clear cut chances, with Swindon passing neatly in midfield but not taking advantage near goal. There was a real score not long before half-time, when after a period of pressure the ball dropped outside our penalty area mid goal, and a volley seemed to have goal written on it all the way until Wales’ No 1 flung himself to his left, just getting the slightest finger tip save, sending it into the woodwork. On the whole a satisfying display with chances equal 1-1 against the woodwork. One other chance of note in the first half was when Verschave was through on goal but the ball would just not come down quick enough and was cleared.

The second half was much the same with only half chances for both teams. Saverese had replaced the injured Verschave at half time but this did not affect the pattern of the team. With our current injury record there was a scare when Rog came out to clear and was floored by an attacker and Todd and lay motionless for a couple of minutes. The threat of the ice-cold sponge was enough and he continued in goal and pulled off a couple of very good saves to keep the score goal less.

The game seemed to be heading for a 0-0 draw, with the thought that 1 goal would decide the game, on 75 mins a couple of chances were blocked with the ball falling to Roberts centre goal on the edge of the box, he sent it low into the net. The stand erupted was our season still to have meaning. As he turned to celebrate with the fans he started to take his shirt off with the referee giving a warning, he took no notice and continued with the ref shaking his head, the result off course was a booking. We can understand his joy but rightly or wrongly the ref was left with no decision to make. We can do without silly bookings. Jenkins replaced Romo.

With the fans in full voice and returning the chant of ‘Your going down with the Oxford’, the match turned again. On 81 Todd was running back towards goal inside the penalty area, put in a last gasp stretch of the leg, the ball ran away the Swindon player went down………penalty. It was at the far end but judging by the reaction of all the players it seemed debatable. After what seemed an age Todd was booked and Swindon scored.

Swindon upped the tempo but the only real chance came to the Swans. In the dying minutes with the 3min extra already in progress, we attacked down the right a pass across field seemed to have taken their goalie and defence out of the game. The ball dropped to Lacey who with Savarese free to his right decided to go it alone, the shot was blocked with Gio screaming at him for not passing. Did our last hopes go in those seconds when we were all ready to scream Goal.

If this had again not been a must win game, we would have come away pleased with a draw, but came away as if we had lost. Two points, even excluding his miss at the end Lacey had a bad game and gave the ball away regularly. Watkin must learn to take chances, as today he waited for things to happen instead of gambling on where the ball might be played.

As we mentioned in previous reports, we can accept relegation if we go down showing some passion. Today we again showed it. We are still missing the backbone of the defence in Smith & Jones and also had Todd covering for stand in O’Leary. Who knows if this had happened in Oct/Nov we could have picked up enough points to be in with a shout.

Good support by the fans and a very heavy police presence, which was paraded when there was a threat of problems between a small group and a few Swindon fans across the segregated area.

We are left praying for a miracle……….. they do happen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just back in Devon after a day out in dismal, damp, deary old Swindon.

No arguing with DJS's assessment that it was pretty much bargain basement stuff, but I was pleased to see how hard the team battled today and after the scary scramble in our box in the closing stages before Lacey inexplicably failed to slip the ball to the onrushing Savarese for what would have been an easy tap in, I'm not sure whether I feel gutted we didn't sneak the three points or relieved we didn't do a Northampton away.

Swans lined up 3-5-2 with Bound, Todd and Price as centre halves; Romo and Howard as wing backs; Lacey, Cusack and Roberts in midfield (allegedly); with Watkin and Vershave up front.

But for a wee bit more composure in front of goal we might have been 2-0 up in the opening few minutes. Stu Roberts latched on to a flick on and looked clean through. Sadly his first touch took him a bit wide but he redeemed himself with an inch-perfect cross to Watkin's head and the striker met it well only for it to come back off the foot of the post.

A few minutes later Veschave found himself in a similar clean through position but seemed to try to nod it down to set himself up when he perhaps should have just let fly. In the end he was in such a muddle the centre half nipped in and nicked it from him. Disappointing.

Swindon were there for the taking but we couldn't really carve up any chances as clear cut as those two. Lacey had a decent 20-yard shot and Stu turned and curled one just over with his left but that was about it.

Swindon came back into it a bit - mainly beacuse our midfield seemed so unbalanced. Roberts was running all over behind the front two and out to the right, Cusack stayed in the middle but Lacey couldn't decide whether he should be out left helping Howard or in the middle helping Cusack. With Price playing at centre half, Romo was pinned back on the right but he looked promsising on a few forays up the right wing. There were worrying gaps on the left though.

As the half drew to a close, Swindon looked a bit more dangerous although Price was impressive at the back, tackling hard - but it took a world-class fingertip save from Rog to keep us in it on the stroke of half time.

The Swindon bloke caught it well on the half-volley from the edge of the box and it looked goal bound. But Rog flung himself to his right and managed to get a fingertip to it to help it onto the bar.

Hollins rightly brought on savarese for the ineefective Verschave but the 2nd half flew by in pretty much the same fashion as the 1st. The defence looked less sure though, and it's fortunate the Swindon strikers seemed intent to stray offside all the time.

The midfield - particularly Lacey - seemed to lose possession too often but on the 75th minute, things changed for the better when Stu turned in the box to bury a low shot in the back of the net after good strong work by Savarese.

Sadly, just as we were beginning to think we'd secured the three points, a rush of blood to the otherwise impressive Todd's head resulted in a rash challenge and a penalty.

Rog tried hard to put the taker off a-la-Grobbelaar but it didn't work.

An industrious, if unspectacular performance. We had a bit of luck to hang on, but if only Lacey had slipped that ball to the right at the death ....

When we conduct the post mortem at the end of this campaign, this will be one of those games which we will put in the "might have been" list. Against a decent, if uninspired, Swindon side we demonstrated that we can compete at this level, but we never managed to get our game going with any great consistency or fluency, and ultimately we will have to view this as two points lost.

We stuck with the 3-5-2 formula that seems to have brought a spark of life to our game in recent weeks, but again with the personnel shuffled as a result of injury. This time the back three was Bound, Todd and Price, with a midfield five of Howard (left), Romo (right), Lacey, Cusack and Roberts (in the roving "Fabiano" role; Verschave and Watkin were up front. And in the third minute the formation brought a great opening, when a through ball from Cusack sent Roberts away on the right, and his perfectly measured cross found the head of the unmarked Howard, whose effort struck the post. This sparked the lively Jack contingent (must have been 800 - 900 or so) into a very vocal response, which was maintained excellently throughout the game. A pity about the few morons who sought to wreck that by antagonising the opposition fans and throwing missiles onto the pitch. Don't suppose we'll be seeing you at Darlington next season?!

The home responded quickly to our early thrust with the impressive Michael Reddy bringing a fine one handed save from Freestone, after he had all too easily escaped the attentions of Price. But then we were back on the attack through Verschave, who went down under a challenge in the area, only to be refused his penalty request. The pattern of the game continued in this lievely end to end fashion, even though the quality of the football was patchy, as both teams struggled to find any real cohesion. A good moment for the Swans came when Watkin and Verschave fashioned en excellent 1 - 2 only for the Frenchman to poke his shot wide; and Lacey produced an impressive long range strike shortly after, which the was dealt with easily by the Swindon keeper.

The home side thought they had the lead when, once again, Michael Reddy made inroads into our penalty area, this time bemusing Chris Todd, who had come across to cover for the AWOL Price. Fortunately, Reddy prodded his close range effort into the side netting from an acute angle, with many of us thinking it had gone in! Then there was a reply from Romo who glided past a couple of defenders before striking a sweet left foot effort just over the bar on the half hour mark. But at this point, strangely, we retreated to the last third, and allowed the home side to take the initiative - first Matty Bound was called upon to make an excellent last ditch clearance; then Swindon had the ball in the net in the 37th minute only for the goal to be ruled out for off-side; and then on the stroke of half time a superbly struck volley from Hewlett brought the best save of the season from Freestone, who somehow managed to turn the ball onto the cross bar. A truly fantastic effort from Roger. But from a position of comfort and near control on the half-hour, we were suddenly lucky to be on level terms at the break!

The pattern of the second half was similar to the first, with Swindon looking dangerous mainly through Reddy's raids down the left, and the Swans responding through the positive running of Roberts and the cultured probings of Romo. Savarese (on for Verschave at half time) was also testing the home defence with his robust presence, but without really creating an opportunity. And it was frustrating to watch the Swans get plenty of the ball, only to see it largely wasted by our central midfield pairing of Cusack and Lacey who, despite battling hard, did not seem able to fashion the right pass to unlock the home defence.

Indeed it was not until the 63rd minute that a real opening arrived, and it fell to the home side, with Freestone making his third world class save of the afternoon, this time parrying a point blank header to keep us level. We responded to this with a flurry of attacks that brought a couple of corners, but despite hacing plenty of possession, we were not really looking dangerous. Not until the 75th minute - when a good break from Savarese led to confusion in the home defence; the ball broke to Roberts 16 yards out, and his firm low finish gave the keeper no chance. Ecstacy - we went wild! We are staying up, sang the Jacks! And Stu took his shirt off again, only to see the yellow card. But this time we were spared the nailbiting last 15 minutes, because the home side struck back almost immediately. Again Michael Reddy broke into the box, and this time a trailing leg from the inexperienced Todd sent him sprawling, the spot-kick was easily despatched by O'Halloran.

The last 10 minutes brought one more great chance for each side. Swindon forced an incredible goalmouth scramble in the 88th minute, but were foiled by a combination of Freestone and Bound. And in injury time, a great run from Watkin saw him burst past the advancing keeper and square the ball to Lacey on the edge of the box. Lacey attempted to strike the ball into the undefended goal, only to see his shot blocked by a retreating defender. A golden chance had gone, and Lacey found himelf being berated by Savarese who clearly felt that a pass to him would have been a better option. At the final whistle there was a good response from the fans, who acknowledged that this was a decent effort and a fair result.

Freestone - 9 Three incredible saves, and plenty of authority.
Howard - 6 Competent, though slightly uncomfortable as a wing back.
Romo - 7 Attempted to provide a cutting edge from wide, when really it should have been coming from the middle.
Todd - 7 Apart from the penalty, a very promising all round performance
Price - 6 Struggled in the early stages, particularly against Reddy, but improved as the game went on.
Bound - 8 Held the defence together brilliantly.
Cusack - 5 Got stuck in, and tried to orchestrate things, but nowhere near enough domination of the midfield.
Lacey - 5 Battled away, but very ineffective in his attacking role.
Roberts - 7 Not a great game all round, but a terrific last 20 minutes, when he grabbed a goal and really stretched them.
Watkin - 6 A game effort, but never really looked like scoring.
Verschave - 6 Some tricky running, but seems to lack composure in front of goal.
Savarese - 7 Looked a threat, without capitalising this time.
Jenkins (for Romo) - 5 No great impression.