SWINDON entertained local rivals Devizes at Greendown in Premier Two, looking to maintain the good form that they had shown over the early stages of the season.

Starting brightly, Swindon looked to dominate the game, and were unlucky not to be given at least a short corner as Salmon's shot was illegally stopped on route to goal.

Good work from Gassner down the left hand channel should again have been punished with a short corner, but the decisions were going against the home side.

Devizes took the lead against the run of play after 15 minutes as the Swindon defence was exposed on the break. Swindon continued to press, but could not break through the experienced defence.

Devizes again hit Swindon on the break to make it 2-0.

Swindon changed things in the second half, with Sage dropping back to sweep, and Mark Preston stepping forward from the back to play a holding role in the centre of midfield.

Disaster struck at the start of the second half. Devizes broke through into the area and the Swindon defence stopped, expecting a free hit to be given.

But no whistle came, and the Devizes forward slotted the ball into the bottom corner of the goal.

Swindon continued to press, with Scrase unlucky not to score after good work down the right.

They were finally rewarded when Couling stepped up at the back post to score the goal of the game, to leave the final score at 3-1 to Devizes.

Skipper Salmon said after the game: "It's a shame we didn't raise our performance up again to the level of last Saturday. Had we done so, we would have won today."

Swindon face another tough encounter on Saturday, when they travel to tabletoppers Exeter University.