JONATHAN Obika rescued a point for Swindon Town as they came from behind to share the spoils at Southend United this evening.

The striker hauled his side level with a deflected effort with just over a quarter-of-an-hour to play at Roots Hall to cancel out Will Atkinson’s early opener for the Shrimpers.

Town were then thankful for the heroics of goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux in the closing stages as he made a series of superb stops to deny Southend a winner and ensure the visitors left Essex with a hard-earned point and climb one place in League One from 20th to 18th.

Swindon made three changes to the side that were emphatically thumped at Rochdale on Saturday, with Nathan Delfouneso brought into a three-man attack to replace the injured Bradley Barry.

Conor Thomas and Sean Murray came into midfield at the expense of youngster Tom Smith and Michael Doughty, with the latter missing from the matchday 18 altogether because of illness.

Swindon were first to have a sight of goal when Murray was sent tumbling on the edge of the Southend box. Anton Rodgers floated a free-kick to John Goddard at the back post and although Raphael Branco made a mess of the knock-back, Rodgers was able to work the ball back into the box to Goddard again, who scuffed a difficult chance wide.

Southend then began to grow into the game and a deep corner from Anthony Woodsworth was headed back across goal by Stephen McLaughlin but no team-mate was on hand to pounce.

The hosts swiftly broke the deadlock from their next attack on 12 minutes, with a Wordsworth delivery again proving too much for Town to deal with. This time the Southend wideman picked out the forward run of Atkinson from midfield and he shrugged off the attentions of Lloyd Jones to coolly slot past visiting keeper Vigouroux.

A low curling effort from Murray forced a scrambling Mark Oxley to parry the ball away midway through the half but that was as good as it got for the visitors before the interval.

Southend continued on the front foot and former Town man Nile Ranger had his old club worried when he raced into the box with the ball but despairing tackles from Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill and then Goddard kept him at bay.

Another probing Shrimpers attack ended with a powerful snap-shot from Wordsworth from 25 yards but Vigouroux got down well to gather and Town were grateful to get to the break with just a one-goal deficit.

Town had the ball in the back of the net through Delfouneso in the early exchanges of the second half but the goal was chalked off as Ormonde-Ottewill had strayed offside in the build-up.

That seemed to signal an improvement from the visitors as Goddard picked out a good run from Obika up the right soon afterwards as the Town striker sprinted into the box although his low shot ended up closer to the corner flag than the goal.

Swindon should have drawn level just before the hour mark but Delfouneso wasted a glorious opportunity, heading wide unmarked at the back post after he was picked out by Ormonde-Ottewill following a twisting, turning run up the left.

Sensing momentum was with them, the Town staff looked to capitalise by introducing another striker into the mix with 30 minutes to go as Luke Norris was sent on in place of Murray.

Swindon were well and truly on top and only a stunning save from Oxley prevented them from drawing level. Darnell Furlong was pushed over on the touchline and Rodgers’ low free-kick was met by Goddard but the Shrimpers stopper somehow spotted the ball through a crowd of bodies and clawed it away with his legs.

The goal Town had been threatening eventually did arrive with just over a quarter of an hour to play. Conor Thomas darted forward from deep and threaded in the excellent Obika and although he was shunted wide by his man, the striker still got a shot off which looped over Oxley via a handy deflection.

Southend had Swindon on the ropes soon afterwards as they bombed forward in numbers and the visiting defence were relieved to see Ranger’s effort cannon off a Town man and roll narrowly wide.

The equaliser seemed to galvanise Southend and they began to play their best football of the half in the closing stages and were only prevented from retaking the lead by a stunning save from Vigouroux as he turned away a powerful strike from McLaughlin at his near post.

The visitors were clinging on as the match wore to a close and had their goalkeeper to thank for ensuring they left with a point as he pulled off two more fine saves. First Vigououx turned wide a powerful Ryan Leonard strike before then tipping away Wordsworth's header from the ensuing corner.

SOUTHEND UNITED: Oxley, Demetriou; Thompson, Ferdinand (capt), Timlin; Atkinson, Leonard, Wordsworth, McLaughlin; Cox, Ranger (Fortune 76). Subs not used: Smith, Matsuzaka, Sokolik, O’Neill, King, McGlashan.

SWINDON TOWN: Vigouroux; Furlong, Branco, Jones, Ormonde-Ottewill; Thomas, Rodgers, Murray (Norris 60); Delfouneso, Obika (capt), Goddard (Smith 83). Subs not used: Henry, Evans, Iandolo, Young, Twine.

Referee: Darren Deadman

Attendance: 5,881 (166)