SWINDON Town suffered their second successive defeat as they were beaten 1-0 by Newport County in a competitive game at the Energy Check County Ground.

There were only two changes as Ellis Iandolo, who slotted in at left-back, meaning Matty Taylor was forced into a midfield berth.

Paul Mullin was the only player to recover from injury, as the forward overcame a groin strain to start on the right of midfield.

Town started the stronger of the two teams and had an early glimpse of goal when Mullin broke free down the right-hand side, before cutting it back to Keshi Anderson.

Sadly, the ball was a little bit behind the Crystal Palace man, who could only direct his effort wide of the mark.

Swindon were well in control through the first 20 minutes of the half but were handed a reminder of the danger possessed by their opponents as Matt Dolan’s 12th minute corner only needed a nudge at the back post to give the visitors a lead.

This led into a spell of pressure for County, who pumped to ball into the Town penalty area.

Opposition skipper Joss Labadie latched onto Olly Lancashire’s headed clearance and sent a looping volley over Reice Charles-Cook’s goal.

Nice build up play by Town again led to Mullin having a shot on goal, the former Morecambe man worked it onto his left side well before lashing over the bar.

Michael Flynn was then required to make an early substitution in the 34th minute as Scot Bennett was replaced by Sean Rigg.

The second instalment started as the first had ended, both teams continued to work hard but failed to carve out any real chances to get in front.

Anderson was shown a yellow card five minutes after the restart after hauling down Labadie just outside the area, and with the resulting free-kick, County were unable to beat the wall.

Just short of the hour mark Smith had the perfect chance to round off a sweeping Swindon move by sliding the ball into either Mullin or Anderson.

However, the on-loan Millwall man failed to do either as Town turned over possession.

Three minutes later County had their third shot on goal in the half when Labadie let rip from distance, his effort whistled wide via a deflection.

At the other end Mullin and Purkiss linked up well to fire a ball in to Smith, who was unable to get any convincing contact on the cross.

The game was quickly slipping away from both sides as the score line remained 0-0 with 20 minutes to play at a cold County Ground.

David Pip did well on the right to poke the ball through to Shaun McClouskey but along came skipper Lancashire to snuff out any danger in the 74th minute.

A minute later the breakthrough came as former Town man Ben Tozer leaped the highest to nod past Charles-Cook from Dolan’s corner.

Flitcroft immediately reacted by sending on striker Kaiyne Woolery in the place of Goddard, that soon became a double change as Gordon was introduced at the expense of Iandolo in the 79th minute.

The Town man threw his last roll of the dice in the 89th minute as he thrust Brophy into the action for Mullin. 

From here the hosts piled on the pressure and almost levelled when Matt Preston's header crashed against the bar, but it was too little too late for Town, as they were unable to escape defeat.