THREE first-half goals from Swindon Town U18s helped them see off Gillingham, despite a second-half surge from the hosts.

Manager Alan McLoughlin was delighted with how his side approached a first half in which Town dominated their opposition.

The opening goal came from a well-worked set-piece as Scott Twine took his chance in the box well.

Will Christopher and Sebastian Martinez linked up well down the right-hand side before the ball was delivered to the far post for Twine to net his second of the game.

On the stroke of half-time, Louis Spalding completed a move which saw Town cut open Gillingham as he found the net with his left boot.

Gillingham struck back in the second half, scoring twice in Kent, but McLoughlin was never too concerned and was happy with the response from the defeat to Southend United the week before.

“The first half was a magnificent performance,” said McLoughlin.

“After the Southend game, the boys executed the way we wanted to play, in terms of matching them physically, winning second balls, being aggressive, changing play quickly and stretching the Gillingham team.

“They really didn’t get a sniff in the first half and (we scored) three fantastic goals.

“Unfortunately, in the second half, we let in a sloppy goal and then they had, as you would expect with us being away from home and leaving at 6.20am, a point in the game with some dominance.

“We did change to 4-4-2 and leave them having an extra man in midfield but I was confident we would defend well and counter-attack, which is what we did. We should have scored three or four more goals.

“(There was) some poor officiating, even though we won the game, I still would be honest and say the officiating was poor in terms of nearly eight minutes being played over at the end and two or three decisions should have gone for Scott Twine in the box.

“The boys were brilliant and we’ve taken it into training this week.”