SO, appearances truly are deceptive.

With Swindon Town having crashed and burned in their previous two home League Two matches, anyone reviewing the bare statistics from Saturday’s 3-2 success over a Stevenage side previously unbeaten on the road this season may conclude that David Flitcroft’s side had finally drawn a line under their recent home hex merely by the skin of their teeth.

Indeed, if you’d walked in on this match as the fourth official hoisted the board displaying five added minutes of injury time – an act greeted by a collective cry of ‘FIVE?’ from the vast majority of the 6,022 disbelieving spectators – you may have been labouring under the misapprehension that Town had been involved in some titanic struggle to the bitter end before belatedly handing their supporters the kind of County Ground result they had been craving for six long months.

The reality could not be more different.

As referee John Brooks – more on him later - belatedly sounded the final whistle to hand Flitcroft his first success on home turf since taking over this summer, the only issue from Town’s 1,500th win in league matches that really needed addressing was how on earth the final scoreline was so close.

Town goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux in particular had a valid reason to wonder how he had been compelled to retrieve the ball from the back of his own net twice, having been largely reduced to the role of bystander for most of the 95 or so minutes while having only two shots officially classed as ‘on target’ on his goal.

The home side were 2-0 up inside the first 15 minutes, probably should have been out of sight at half-time and yet were still forced to play out those final few moments amid scenes that were a lot more tension-filled than they should have been.

Still, if all wasn’t what it seemed on the scoreboard, there was no denying the other pleasing evidence on offer to those of a red and white persuasion.

Flitcroft emerged with not only a welcome first home triumph, but more vindication of his loan captures of Kellan Gordon, Timi Elsnik and Keshi Anderson and further confirmation of the transformation of Luke Norris from last season’s occasionally tortured soul up top to all-action nuisance leading the line.

The manager made two changes to the side that had lost 1-0 at Notts County in midweek, James Dunne recovering from illness to replace Matt Taylor in the heart of midfield, while Derby loanee Gordon came in for Kaiyne Woolery out wide.

Town showed their early intent as Gordon was found by Norris in acres of space, with the big striker appearing to be slightly impeded as he went to meet the return cross.

Gordon was the key first-half outlet for the home side as Norris again found him in space on seven minutes and he sent over a low cross that was begging to be put in at the back post, with Anderson just appearing to check his movement at the wrong time.

Two minutes later though the ball was in the back of the visitors’ net as Chris Hussey sent over a wickedly swerving corner from the right and despite appearing to be almost on the floor, Norris did enough to force the ball beyond keeper Joe Fryer at the back post.

Swindon Advertiser:
Luke Norris breaks the deadlock for Town

It was the first time Town had taken the lead at home in the league this season and with the visiting side struggling to contain the pace of Gordon and Anderson, the second goal arrived four minutes later.

Ronnie Henry’s poor header allowed Anderson a free run at the Stevenage back-line and the frontman intelligently played Norris in to the left edge of the area before charging towards the six-yard box to gleefully touch home his teammate’s low return delivery.

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Keshi Anderson celebrates making it 2-0 to the home side

The away side’s woes continued as Norris found himself in another world of space on the right side of the box and his thumping effort was strongly palmed away by Fryer on 18 minutes.

Stevenage had shown little in the way of attacking threat to this point and that continued as Joe Martin’s decent delivery from the left was nodded miles over by Danny Newton.

Norris was continuing to make his presence felt and won a free-kick 25 yards out just after the half-hour mark that Hussey curled beyond Fryer’s far post.

Anderson continued to be a handful, latching on to Lancashire’s exquisite cross-field pass and skinning Martin but his low centre found a blue shirt instead of red before Norris sent a fizzing drive inches wide.

Town lost Dion Conroy, who appeared to tweak a leg muscle and exited the field, to be replaced by Chris Robertson, but with Gordon and Anderson continuing to buzz usefully around the Stevenage area, Norris again let fly from range, forcing Fryer to gather at the second attempt.

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Dion Conroy trudges off injured

The game was almost put to bed two minutes after half-time as a charging Dunne won the ball in midfield and poked it into the path of Anderson, whose thudding left-footer came back off Fryer’s right-hand post.

Yet the visitors had a lifeline on 50 minutes as Town substitute Robertson lost a battle out wide and as the ball came across, Godden’s attempted effort was deflected into the path of Newton and messily into the net.

Elsnik blasted over but inexplicably the home nerves were starting to jangle as Stevenage got in down the right again and Godden flashed a header inches wide of Vigouroux’s far post.

Just as Brooks’ interminable whistling and a mini-Stevenage resurgence threatened to upset the balance of the afternoon, Gordon advanced on to the breaking Paul Mullin’s pass and his pacy cross hit Martin, the referee agreeing with the verdict of the home support that it had been with the use of an arm.

Norris stepped up and sent Fryer the wrong way from the spot.

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Luke Norris converts from the penalty spot to put Swindon 3-1 up

That seemed to restore Town’s mojo and 10 minutes later Lancashire rose to meet Hussey’s corner, which was parried by Fryer.

Anderson, who had a quieter second period, then took aim again but straight at Fryer before substitute Amine Linganzi found himself in an advanced position but could not sort out his feet near the edge of the box.

That should have been it, but Godden slipped the ball neatly passed Lancashire before being checked 25 yards out, allowing Martin to curl the resulting free kick beyond the helpless Vigouroux.

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The Town wall can do nothing about Joe Martin's late free-kick to cut the gap

Cue that period of injury time. Yet even that was not what it seemed.

What could have been an uncomfortable finale was nothing of the sort as Town largely coasted home untroubled, despite the unnecessarily late free-kick yielded by Robertson that allowed Stevenage one last hoist into the box before Brooks’ final whistling act.