A healthy crowd was on hand to see a Swindon Town side featuring eight first team players defeat Royal Wootton Bassett Town 3-0 in a friendly.

Despite falling to a 3-0 defeat, Royal Wootton Bassett Town made a solid impression against a strong Swindon Town side as Bassett hosted the Robins in a friendly to mark the one year anniversary of the opening of the Gerard Buxton Sports Ground.

While the League One outfit, who started first teamers Will Henry, Tom Smith, Jake Evans, Ellis Iandolo, Sean Murray, Jermaine Hylton, Jon Obika and Raphael Rossi-Branco, dominated possession and had a host of opportunities, Rich Hunter's team proved stubborn opponents. They kept Swindon at bay for the opening half hour until Obika, in his first appearance since suffering an injury against Coventry City in August, opened the scoring.

It took a good finish to break the deadlock too as the England Under 20 international curled an effort in from the edge of the area.

Prior to the opener, Swindon had found home 'keeper Curtis Meare in fine form as he pulled off a number of saves, while Bassett also had the woodwork to thank for keeping the scores deadlocked as Iandolo struck the upright.

The hosts didn't let their heads drop after going behind, and could have been on level terms going into the break, but Henry Spalding saw his shot deflect just wide of Henry's goal after he had jinked his way into the box.

After the restart Obika blocked a clearance, with the ball breaking for Hylton, who rounded Meare but could only rattle the post.

Evans then doubled Swindon's lead on the hour, the hometown boy blasting in from just inside the area after the ball had been cut back to him.

Scott Twine, another Bassett boy, was then involved with Town's third. He had earlier skewed a volley across the face of goal, but made up for that miss when he teed up Hylton to score with a low drive.

Played in front of a bumper crowd, the match was a success on all fronts with Bassett's players certainly doing themselves justice with an organised performance full of effort.

Huge thanks go to Swindon, in particular their management team of Luke Williams and Ross Embleton, for naming such a strong side, particularly with the season already underway.

Embleton's comments to the Swindon Town website in the build up to the game were extremely complimentary and gratefully received.

Thanking Bassett for providing use of the Gerard Buxton Sports Ground facility for training, the Town First Team Coach said: "Wootton Bassett have given us a huge advantage over the last eight or nine months, so any support or help that we can give them is a good payback from our perspective. It is important to acknowledge everything they have done to accommodate us at a fantastic facility."

For the club and Sports Association, it's been a huge privilege hosting Swindon and providing them use of what we believe is a first class facility.

We look forward to building on the relationship that has developed over the past twelve months, and wish them all the best for a season which has started promisingly and hopefully will end with a high finish in League One.

Credit: Stuart Smedley
Last modified on Monday 5th September 2016 at 21:54