SWINDON Town’s efforts lasted a full 90 minutes this afternoon as Luke Williams’ side twice came from behind to earn a point on the road at Peterborough United.

Seven days after their local derby against Bristol Rovers was abandoned as a result of torrential rain, Town made the trip to London Road for an early kick-off in front of the TV cameras and handed Swindon supporters watching from the comfort of their armchairs a barrelful of Saturday afternoon drama.

As a result of their international commitments for Iraq and Northern Ireland’s U21s respectively, Yaser Kasim and Jamie Sendles-White were unavailable, so the latter was replaced by young full-back Darnell Furlong, who deputised as part of Town’s central defensive trio.

Williams also opted to bring in John Goddard for his first involvement since August 16, with the ex-Woking man spearheading a midfield diamond, whilst Bradley Barry was brought back into the starting line-up.

Barry and James Brophy would attempt to offer width and support lone frontman Nathan Delfouneso, with Luke Norris dropping to the bench.

When the action got under way, both sides sprayed the ball around nicely during the embryonic stages of the contest but there wasn’t too much to shout about, with the hosts’ Tom Nichols firing the first shot of the match horribly wide of the target.

Despite some encouraging build-up play, Town were finding it difficult to conjure up an accurate final ball and it took them until the 13th minute to threaten, with Goddard hitting a side-footed effort from the edge of the Posh area that proved comfortable for veteran goalie Mark Tyler to catch.

The visitors’ movement in the final third continued to cause Peterborough problems but a string of set-pieces failed to yield any reward whilst crosses from wide areas also failed to hit the mark, with both Barry and Brophy guilty of overhitting deliveries from promising positions.

Just before the half-hour mark, the best opportunity of the match so far fell the way of the home side when right-back Jermaine Anderson chased down a seemingly lost cause and latched on to the ball in space.

Anderson hit the byline and then cut the ball back into the area but his pass was comically missed by two arriving team-mates and Swindon were let off the hook.

With less than 10 minutes of the first period to go, an uncharacteristic lapse in concentration from Michael Doughty led to the hosts getting their noses in front, with the midfielder gifting possession to Marcus Maddison with a casual backheel before conceding a free-kick as he was controversially adjudged to have fouled the fleet-footed Posh man in an attempt to win the ball back.

From the resulting set-piece, Maddison whipped a devilish delivery into the Town area and with two blue shirts arriving with perfect timing, Gwion Edwards bundled home from point-blank range to open the scoring.

Swindon were to stay behind leading into the break but they very nearly levelled things up on the stroke of half-time as a patient passing move ended with Conor Thomas playing in Goddard, whose low effort rolled agonisingly wide of the far post.

Looking to press home the issue, Peterborough began the second period on the front foot and Nathan Thompson had to be alert to block Paul Taylor’s goalbound effort two minutes after the interval.

But Swindon raced straight up the other end and from a throw-in on the left flank, they teed up an equaliser.

Goddard and Doughty linked up and the latter saw his goalbound shot strike the arm of a diving Michael Bostwick, leaving referee Tim Robinson to point to the spot.

Having caused the award of the penalty, midfielder Doughty took the resultant kick himself and squeezed the ball home past Tyler from 12 yards to level things up.

But that wasn’t to be the only spot-kick of the game.

With 62 minutes on the clock, dangerous Peterborough striker Taylor got in down the right flank and clipped a teasing cross over the heads of a clutch of waiting players, with Sean Murray, only just sent on for his Town debut, waiting to mop up the danger.

However, the ex-Watford man failed to notice that he was being closed down by Posh skipper Chris Forrester, who nicked the ball and was then brought down as Murray trailed a leg, allowing Maddison to blast home an unstoppable penalty to make it 2-1.

But Swindon weren’t done and with 15 minutes to go, they hauled themselves back into the match once again as Doughty arrowed in a low cross from the left flank and a sliding Jack Baldwin diverted the ball past his own goalie and into the net.

There was still time for Barry to have a shot deflected over the Posh crossbar and Luke Norris to fire across the face of goal as what began as a game that began as a slow burner ended as a full-blown nail-biter.

SWINDON TOWN: Lawrence Vigouroux, Darnell Furlong, Nathan Thompson (C), Lloyd Jones, Bradley Barry, Conor Thomas, Anton Rodgers (Sean Murray 58), Michael Doughty, James Brophy (Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill 80), John Goddard (Luke Norris 68), Nathan Delfouneso.

Subs not used: Will Henry, Tom Smith, Ellis Iandolo, Jermaine Hylton.