SWINDON TOWN 1 CHARLTON ATHLETIC 1 - Last-minute equaliser is all too familiar (From Swindon Advertiser)

SWINDON TOWN 1 CHARLTON ATHLETIC 1 - Last-minute equaliser is all too familiar

8:00am Monday 8th February 2010 in

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THE old adage that lightning never strikes twice may well need to be amended after Swindon Town’s present League One campaign.

Despite dominating large segments of Saturday’s clash with high-flying Charlton at the County Ground, Town had to settle for a point after Nicky Bailey’s late, late leveller.

In a peculiar throw-back to the corresponding game at the Valley earlier in the season, when the Addicks waited until the 96th minute before equalising, Charlton seemed to be heading back to London empty-handed after Kevin Amankwaah’s third goal of the season put the hosts ahead.

That was just after the hour mark, and until that point the Robins had enjoyed much of the ascendancy on a team whose performance did not reflect their lofty league position.

But as the game dragged itself towards its conclusion the visitors stepped up a gear and caught Swindon on the counter-attack in the third minute of stoppage time.

After the game Wilson had to hide his anger with the nature of the result.

“Frustrated is a nice word to use for how I feel right now,” he said.

“It’s very disappointing because I thought we had done enough in the game to get a second goal.

“We should have seen the game out, we haven’t cleared our lines of the final ball and it’s cost us.

“It does come down to concentration. We were rushing things to try and get that second goal and there were people in offensive positions when they shouldn’t be in offensive positions.”

Town overwhelmed their guests in the first half-hour.

Simon Ferry and Jonathan Douglas bossed the middle of midfield, and both had early opportunities to get their names on the scoresheet.

Douglas had the game’s first shot on target after 17 minutes after the Irishman was played in by Ferry, but Rob Elliot in the visiting goal pushed the low effort round the post.

From the resulting corner Gordon Greer saw his flick header smash against the Charlton bar with Elliot beaten.

Five minutes later Ferry found himself in front of a goal with no keeper after Billy Paynter’s stabbed attempt had bounced back off Elliot.

But the on-loan Celtic midfielder’s shot bounced back off Paynter - League One’s newly-crowned player of the month for January - on the line and away to safety.

“Somebody definitely doesn’t like me up there, they don’t want me to score,” said Ferry after the game.

“I think I should have smashed it, but being on my left foot I just wanted to place it and it’s hit Billy in the back.

“I don’t think Billy wants anyone to score except him.”

In the moments before the break Jonjo Shelvey saw his rasping drive thunder against the Town bar, but the sides went into the interval deadlocked.

However, 20 minutes into the second period Town grabbed the lead.

Jon-Paul McGovern’s corner was flicked on at the near post by Greer and Kevin Amankwaah guided the loose ball home on the volley from eight yards out.

But Charlton reacted well, and in the final 15 minutes stretched Town to breaking point.

And with two minutes of the alloted five of injury time remaining, Bailey latched onto the impressive Akpo Sodje’s pass to earn the away side a share of the spoils.

Charlton boss Phil Parkinson revealed after the game that sides in League One have cottoned onto Town’s habit of conceding at the death, and that the number of late goals surrendered by the Robins inspired his team to push harder for the late leveller.

“They were a good side and for the first half an hour I thought they were the better team,” said Parkinson.

“Obviously we were aware that Swindon do concede a lot of late goals and we felt that right until the last minute we would have a chance of getting ourselves back in the game.”

Meanwhile, Wilson was left to rue another two points dropped against the Addicks.

“One header goes in, the defender is the wrong side of the striker and it ends up in the back of the net,” said Wilson on the Charlton strike. “Against a quality side that is likely to happen.”