SWINDON Town’s poor start to the season at the County Ground continues as Colchester United were the latest side to inflict defeat on Mark Cooper’s side with a 2-1 victory.

Town are now without a home win in five, in all competitions, and there were periods where the fans made their frustrations heard.

George Moncur piled the pressure on Town early on as his third minute strike gave the visitors the lead.

Wes Thomas restored parity, with Town’s first goal in more than 200 minutes of football at the County Ground, before Callum Harriott restored the hosts advantage two minutes before the break, which proved to be enough.

Belford started his first league game of the season in place of Lawrence Vigouroux, while Yaser Kasim and Fabien Robert both returned to the starting line-up.

Jermaine Hylton returned from his shoulder injury to sit on the bench after coming through a development game in midweek, and was called into action earlier than he thought when he came on in the 27th minute to replace Thomas, who walked off holding his hamstring.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Obika, who scored in that midweek game but was missing with a re-occurrence of his ankle injury.

Swindon were also without skipper Nathan Thompson who succumbed once more to the injury sustained at Southend and it was at the back that were found wanting again early on.

In the third minute Matthew Briggs was not tracked by Raphael Branco, who was offered little support all first half down the right, allowing the Colchester player to pull the ball back low into the box. Moncur reacted first to side-foot past Belford.

Swindon were lacklustre in the opening exchanges, with the fans letting their feelings known.

It was a rare positive dart forward from Jordan Turnbull that provided Town with their first real chance in the 11th minute.

The defender, who was playing on the left of a back three, laid the ball into Thomas who, with his back to goal, played a nice one-two with Ajose, but the Birmingham loanee lacked any finesse with his finish, blazing wide.

That was a warning sign and it was the big centre forward who had the hosts back level in the 22nd minute.

Henrik Ojamaa earned the home side a corner that was taken by the left foot of Robert from the right.

His ball was flicked on at the front post by Turnbull and Thomas was in acres of space at the back post and just had to get over a bouncing ball to fire home his first home goal.

It was an open game, with the visitors carving out the better of the chances. One of those was a slick move that put the U’s back in front, minutes before the break.

The ball was played into the box to Marvin Sordell, whose flick to Harriott was weighted perfectly for the winger to latch onto, and the Charlton loanee was able slot home past a hapless Belford, with the Town defence left to look like statues.

Town fans would have expected a response from their team as they emerged for the second half, but it was much of the same as the better chances fell to Colchester, although Belford was never really given too much to be worried about.

In a bizarre attempt to change things, Cooper opted to haul off Kasim on the hour-mark and replaced him with James Brophy to allow Robert to have the free role in the centre.

The manager's second change had more of an impact as Jeremy Balmy replaced Robert with 15 minutes remaining. With his first touch, the Frenchman put in a great ball to the back post which found Ajose, whose sliding effort rattled off the post.

Branco thought he had done enough to earn his side a point in the dying minutes as he leapt highest at a corner, only to see his header cleared off the line by Tosin Olufemi.

It was faint flash in a dull pan as Colchester saw out another away win with relative comfort.

SWINDON TOWN: Belford, Branco, Williams, Turnbull, Ojamaa, Kasim (Brophy 60’), Traore, L Thompson, Robert (Balmy 76’), Ajose, Thomas (Hylton 27’)

Unused subs: Vigouroux, Barry, Ormonde-Ottewill, Rodgers

COLCHESTER UNITED: Jones, Olufemi, Kent, Eastman, Briggs, Edwards, Garvan, Moncur (Gilbey 79’), Harriott (Ambrose 74’), Sordell (Bonne 88’), Massey

Unused subs: Parish, Elokobi, Porter, Sembie-Ferris

Referee: Oliver Langford

Attendance: No announcement