SWINDON Town could easily have scored five or six against Scunthorpe United in the eyes of manager Mark Cooper, though the Robins boss was more than happy to settle for a 3-1 victory and all three League One points.

After a frustrating summer for Town’s fans, the County Ground crowd were treated to a footballing masterclass from their players on Saturday as Scunthorpe were blown away by a stylish attacking display.

While defensively the Robins remained suspect and were thankful to the visitors’ profligacy in front of goal and the excellent shot-stopping of Wes Foderingham, Cooper was generally happy with what he saw.

And, reflecting on the game, he said that his side should perhaps have won by a more convincing margin.

“I thought we were really good for the first so many minutes. I thought we came out of the blocks and started really well and it was wave after wave of attacks. We managed to get two goals up, two really good goals,” he said.

“We let Scunthorpe back into it, which has been a little bit of a worry. We’ve got a lot of young players at the back and there was a little bit of naivety. We’ve got lots of work to do defensively, we know that.

“Josh Lelan and Jordan Turnbull are both young lads, they’ve not been together very long as a back three. We half expected that but we hoped we had enough ability and firepower going forward to see that off and we did.”

Two goals from Michael Smith and one from Massimo Luongo put Town in control at half-time, despite Paddy Madden’s strike for Scunny, and in the second period the home team exerted their superiority over their guests in midfield, where Luongo and Yaser Kasim had stellar games.

“It was important (to get the third goal just before half-time) because it took the pressure off us a little bit and we knew Scunthorpe would have to come at us and really attack us and leave a lot of space in the middle of the pitch, which we thoroughly exploited,” said Cooper.

“I thought second half we controlled the game and played really, really well.

“We asked them (at half-time) to defend a little bit better and not get done with one ball over the top, a flick on and a straight run through for the goal. We spoke about that and spoke about keeping the ball for longer periods of time and trying to draw Scunthorpe out.

“We could have had five or six goals easily in the second half.”