SWINDON Town head coach Ben Garner was disappointed his side didn’t take all three points against Stevenage on Saturday.

Jack Payne’s 94th minute penalty rescued a point for Town after Ben Coker had opened the scoring nine minutes after the break.

The circumstances in which Swindon equalised were debatable, with referee John Brooks pointing to the spot after a coming together between Stevenage defender Scott Cuthbert and Town substitute, Jayden Mitchell-Lawson.

But the spot-kick was awarded, and Garner was hugely grateful to see his team leave the Lamex Stadium with some reward for their efforts.

Reflecting on a point afterwards, Garner said: “I’m disappointed we didn’t win the game. I thought in the first half we were excellent and deserved to be ahead – we should have been ahead.

“It’s a poor goal to go behind from our perspective, but we pushed and pushed.

“I’m pleased with a point in terms of the final stages. Any time you’re behind going into injury time, you’re always pleased to take a point.

“But in terms of the overall balance of the game, I’m disappointed not to come away with all three.”

Giving his take on the contentious decision in added time, Garner was in no doubt.

“It looked a penalty at the time, I’ve not seen it back, but it looked like a foul of Jayden [Mitchell-Lawson],” said Garner.

“We were pushing for that goal, and I’m delighted that we’ve got it. It was a great penalty, especially with the big delay again, it was a really, really good penalty.”

Swindon might have counted themselves unfortunate not to have won the game before the late drama, with Tyreece Simpson and Jack Payne failing to bulge the net in good positions.

The Town boss was frustrated his side were not at least a goal up at half-time, and they were ultimately made to pay after a breakdown in communication saw Coker finish smartly.

Garner said: “In the first half, we were very, very good. I thought our control was excellent, we moved the ball really, really well, and there was some really good play. I’m just disappointed we didn’t get that goal.

“In the second half, we started a little bit slow. We have to do a lot better for the goal, but then we changed shape, we threw players on, and they made a big impact.

“I thought we really pushed and kept going, which is a great sign in terms of our mentality to keep going – if you’re going to be a successful side then you need that.”