HARRY ABBOTT watches Swindon Town turn in another away-day masterclass to fell hosts Mansfield

David Flitcroft’s side produced a perfectly precise one-two-three combination to brush past Mansfield Town and make it an astonishing five away wins out of seven in League Two this season.

Possibly still seething from the agonising stoppage-time defeat at Cheltenham Town a week earlier, Swindon roared out of the traps at the One Call Stadium and Amine Linganzi sent shockwaves around the ground with less than four minutes on the clock as he prodded home the opener for the visitors.

A high-kicking Akeshi Anderson gets a challenge in

The Stags had started the day with an unbeaten home record in the league so far in 2017-18.

Yet perhaps the magnitude of Swindon’s performance can be summarised in the fact that Steve Evans’ side seemed destined to relinquish that run as soon as they fell behind.

Although Mansfield rallied after the early blow, Swindon comfortably dealt with everything the hosts threw at them.

Having weathered that, the visitors landed a big body blow on the stroke of half-time when John Goddard doubled the lead before the Stags’ hopes were extinguished altogether inside 10 minutes of the restart when Luke Norris made it 3-0 from the penalty spot.

Although Danny Rose’s late consolation perhaps took a fraction of gloss off Swindon’s day, the post-match debrief will be sweet for the County Ground side as they are up to eighth in the table and hot on the heels of the play-off places, sitting just one point behind.

Town boss Flitcroft made two changes to the side that were beaten so painfully at Cheltenham last time out, rotating both of his wide attacking players.

Luke Norris tucks away Town's third from the penalty spot

Kaiyne Woolery and Kellan Gordon, both withdrawn at half-time at Whaddon Road after a lacklustre first 45 minutes, were relegated to the bench as their places were taken by Goddard and Paul Mullin, the former starting for the first time since the opening day of the season.

The visitors got off to dream start and took the lead with their first meaningful attack with only four minutes on the clock.

Mullin was barged over high on the right by Alex MacDonald, Taylor swung across the free-kick and Linganzi was stronger than Hayden White in the stretch to the ball at the back post and was able to guide it home.

Swindon then had a second clear sight of goal in the opening 10 minutes when goalkeeper Conrad Logan was caught in no-man’s land attempting to scramble back to his line but Keshi Anderson could not quite pick out the waiting Norris with the cross.

Mansfield responded well to falling behind and had plenty of possession in the Swindon half without actually creating much.

At one stage, Jimmy Spencer did well to win the ball in the box but then could not quite wriggle away from Matt Preston, who stepped in well to clear.

The visitors then fashioned out another good opening as Norris saw an effort blocked by Logan before laying off to Mullin when the ball came back to him but the wideman could not keep his effort down.

Mansfield went route one in response as Logan picked out Rose, who could not get his effort on target before Swindon stopper Reice Charles-Cook did well to push away a sharp snap-shot from Spencer from the edge of the box.

The contest then seemed to meander towards the break before Swindon suddenly doubled their advantage in the final minute.

John Goddard wheels away after scoring Town's second

A sustained spell of pressure involving Goddard, Norris and Anderson resulted in Taylor delivering another good low ball, with Goddard pouncing ahead of White in the six-yard box to guide the ball past Logan.

With the game already slipping away from his side, Stags boss Evans rang the changes at the break, sending Lee Angol and Omari Sterling-James on in place of Spencer and Will Atkinson.

It seemed to have the desired effect as after failing to fashion a clear-cut chance in the opening 45 minutes, Mansfield needed just five of the second period to put that right as Angol cracked in a volley on the angle after a long ball forward from Logan, with Charles-Cook reacting well to push over the top.

The warning was heeded by the visitors and they went straight up the other end and grabbed a third goal from the penalty spot to all but kill off the contest.

Ben Purkiss sent in a cross from the right, with referee Oliver Langford deeming that home captain Krystian Pearce had manhandled Anderson in the box and pointing to the spot, Norris drilling low to the left and sending Logan the wrong way.

To their credit, the home side did not roll over and Rose sent an effort from the edge of the box wide before then teeing up Angol, who could not quite react quickly enough as Charles-Cook gathered.

Mansfield were then appealing for a penalty of their own with 18 minutes to go when substitute Sterling-James went down in the box under pressure from Taylor but referee Langford waved away the home side’s claims.

Opening goalscorer Amine Linganzi celebrates with his teammates

The visitors sent fresh legs on in attack in the closing stages as Donal McDermott and Woolery replaced Anderson and Norris but they did not really have a sniff of adding to their advantage as instead Swindon were required to defend as Mansfield sought a way back into the contest.

The away side were able to see off any threat without much alarm right until the clock ticked over into stoppage time.

Rose managed to muscle his way between centre backs Lancashire and Preston to get on the end of MacDonald’s low cross and deny Swindon their clean sheet.

However, Flitcroft and his troops still had the satisfaction of travelling home with their primary objective – three well-earned points.