SWINDON Town head coach Ben Garner praised a brilliant first half an hour as his side beat Sutton United 2-1 at Gander Green Lane on Tuesday night.

First-half goals from Louis Reed – via a free-kick – and a sensational long-range strike from Jonny Williams set Town on the right path before Sutton came back into it prior to the break.

Harry Beautyman – Sutton’s clear man of the match – dispatched the spot-kick past the returning Jojo Wollacott, but the Amber army was unable to find another goal in the remaining time as Swindon maintained the club’s impressive unbeaten run away in the league.

Reacting to a gutsy performance, and a precious three points, Garner was full of praise for the start his team made and his side’s defensive resilience in the second half.

Garner said: “It was a good performance – really resilient – I’m really pleased with it.

“I thought in the first half an hour, we were brilliant, we had great control and it was two wonderful goals.

“I’m delighted for Reed because he practices them every day in training. He had one earlier in the season against Mansfield that hit the post, but he put that one in beautifully today. It was a wonderful goal from Jonny too.

“The last 15 minutes of the first half, it turned a bit and the momentum went towards them. It was more about how they wanted to play.

“But then in the second half, we defended well with a good counter-attacking threat.”

While Harry McKirdy was thwarted in his quest for yet another League Two goal, Reed and Williams showed their quality to get Town over the line on their travels.

The Swindon head coach admitted he has an embarrassment of riches in the middle of the pitch but was mighty thankful two of his outstanding performers played their part in the victory.

Garner said: “We should have scored more goals – that would be my only criticism. But Sutton is a very difficult place to come, and they were on a great run of form, so that’s a really pleasing win. and that was a really big three points.

“We’re blessed with talent in that midfield area – it was a great run and an unbelievable finish.

“I thought we could have had three in the first half, and we had three more opportunities in the second half that we couldn’t take.”