SWINDON Town progressed to the southern section area semi-finals of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy in dramatic fashion last night.

Nicky Ajose scored twice in the final 14 minutes, with the winner coming in the fourth minute of stoppage time, to turn the Robins’ clash with Wycombe on its head after Matt McClure put the visitors in front just before the break.

It was a much-deserved win for the Robins, who dominated the majority of the match but looked as though they would end up with nothing for their efforts until Ajose’s late salvo.

Following the awful display at Macclesfield, this result will surely have done wonders for the squad’s confidence ahead of the trip to Colchester in League One at the weekend.

Cooper made two changes to his starting line-up after the debacle at Macclesfield on Saturday, with Louis Thompson replacing the injured Ryan Mason and Ajose coming in for Nile Ranger, who dropped out of the squad altogether.

After a lethargic opening five minutes, Swindon had the first sight of goal when Ajose teed up Dany N’Guessan on the edge of the box but the former Millwall frontman fired wide.

In the 12th minute, Alex Pritchard split the Wycombe defence wide open with his throughball for Massimo Luongo and, had the Aussie taken some weight off his cross, Nicky Ajose would have been left with a simple tap-in. However, Luongo’s pass was too firm and the chance went begging.

Much of the first quarter of the game was a turgid affair, with Swindon occasionally lifting the gloom with a passage of tidy, passing football but more often than not struggling to get in behind Wycombe’s sizeable centre-back pairing.

When they did, they couldn’t find the necessary proficiency in front of goal.

In the 27th minute, Pritchard and Luongo exchanged overhit passes on the counter attack, leaving the former to volley wide when well –placed inside the penalty box.

Pritchard then sent a fizzing free-kick over the Wycombe crossbar 11 minutes before the break, as Town found it tough to break through the tedium of the game.

Though the hosts were monopolising possession in midfield they lacked a calmness in the final third. Jay McEveley should have at least hit the target after getting forward well to meet Nathan Byrne’s looping right-wing cross in the 36th minute, but the full-back nodded wide.

Moments later the Robins came even closer to nudging in front, when Luongo’s pass was intelligently left by Nicky Ajose for Pritchard and the winger fired against Wanderers keeper Matt Ingram’s left-hand post.

For all their good work, Town were punished for their profligacy on the stroke of half-time. Yet more slapstick defending proved to be the hosts’ downfall.

After appearing to snuffle the initial threat when Max Krentzschmar galloped into the box with the ball, Swindon’s defenders knocked each other over trying to seize on the second ball, allowing McClure to wander through and thrash beyond the helpless Tyrell Belford.

Having gone in front moments before the break, Wycombe almost doubled their lead in the early exchanges of the second half, but Belford save well from Steven Craig’s near-post header.

Sparked into life, and with Ryan Harley introduced to pull the strings in midfield, Swindon finally found a higher gear.

Harley’s shot deflected into the path of Ajose at the back post in the 50th minute but, when Ajose’s centre took a nick of a defender and spun goalwards, Ingram fell on top of the ball.

Ajose was in the thick of the action and four minutes later lashed into the sidenetting from Harley’s lobbed pass before McEveley wildly fired a volley into the Town End car park on the hour.

Wycombe seemed to have forgotten how to attack until the 64th minute, when Kortney Hause’s shot was horribly off-target, before normal service was resumed with Town putting pressure on their guests and Luongo dragged a long-range effort wide.

The Australian playmaker’s radar was better moments later, when again he took aim from distance in the 66th minute, but Ingram was able to make a comfortable save.

The biggest round of applause of the night from the home crowd looked to have been reserved for an impromptu fireworks display emanating from a County Road home midway through the second period, but the home crowd were oohing and aahing for an altogether better reason with 14 minutes left of the tie.

Mohamed El Gabas was tripped on the edge of the box and Harley’s free-kick deflected off Ajose and spun past Ingram. It was a lucky way to get level, but when you’re in a hole even a piece of string is good enough to pull you out.

Town enjoyed a let-off in the 85th minute when Krentzschmar’s shot crept through the legs of Belford and across the line, only for play to be pulled back due to an offside flag raised against Morgan.

Belford saved with his legs from Billy Knott at the near post as the game entered added time, and it seemed as though both sides were going to have to fight it out from the penalty spot before Ajose popped up to nab the winner late on when he turned home Pritchard’s header.

“We played quite well,” Cooper said. ”At some points the crowd were shouting for us to get it forward, but we can’t do that, we have to play.

“When Wycombe got tired as the game went on I thought we would score, and if we got one we would score another one, and that’s how it turned out.

“At the moment every time the ball goes into the box we look like it’s a problem and we need to sort that out.

“We planned to give Ryan (Harley) and Yaser (Kasim) half a game each tonight, and Ryan looked creative and fit and he’s a really good player.

“Nicky (Ajose) just scores goals, but we have to have more than that from him and the other strikers.

“All I asked for was desire, we know we can play football, but the only thing which was questionable was the desire.

“I felt the goal would come and thankfully it did.”