SWINDON Town drew 2-2 with National League Eastleigh in their penultimate pre-season fixture on Saturday.

A first-half penalty from Charlie Austin and a superb second-half strike from Saidou Khan put the League Two outfit in a commanding position at the Silverlake Stadium, only for the hosts to hit two late goals against a much-changed Town via Scott Quigley and Enzio Boldewijn.

Fouled for the penalty, Rushian Hepburn-Murphy was one of Town’s brightest sparks in the opening half, going close to finishing off a wonderful solo run inside the first minute and thundering a vicious shot against the bar not long after.

Dan Kemp also showed plenty of promise in his first appearance in front of Swindon fans since making a season-long loan switch from Milton Keynes Dons.

Lining up in a 5-3-2 formation, manager Michael Flynn named Remeao Hutton as right wing-back with Harrison Minturn, Tom Brewitt, and Frazer Blake-Tracy as the centre-backs. Marcel Lavinier was shifted to left wing-back following a difficult 60 minutes against Bristol City in midweek. Both he and Hutton tested goalkeeper Joe McDonnell with efforts before the break.

The deadlock was broken shortly before half-time when Hepburn-Murphy skipped through on goal down the right and was clearly fouled after entering the box. Austin stepped up and slammed his penalty into the bottom left as McDonnell dived in the opposite direction.

Either side of the break, Town’s goal was living a charmed life. First, Brewitt’s over-confidence inside his own area forced a goal-saving block from Minturn via Paul McCallum’s shot.

After the interval, Minturn was guilty of being sucked towards the ball and allowing half-time substitute Aidan Barlow the freedom of Hampshire. But under pressure from the recovering Minturn, Barlow poked against the near post instead of into the net.

Shortly before the hour mark, Austin missed a glorious chance to double the visitors' lead after Kemp drew the final defender across in a two-on-one situation. Town's captain took too long to shoot, and some heroic defending prevented the goal.

But moments later, the ball fell to Khan on the edge of the box, and the Gambian international steered into the top-right corner to make it 2-0.

Both teams wasted good chances to trouble the scorers further, but it took until the 75th minute for the next goal to arrive. Substitute Quigley was on hand to nod home from close range after a free-kick down the left was diverted across to him inside the six-yard box.

The Spitfires duly equalised eight minutes from time too following a simple ball over the top of Town’s young defence. Boldewijn latched onto it and rolled a left-footed volley across substitute Conor Brann and into the bottom-right corner.

Swindon will play Championship club, Plymouth Argyle in their final pre-season outing next Saturday at the County Ground.

STFC starting XI: Mahoney, Hutton, Blake-Tracy, McEachran, Khan, Kemp, Hepburn-Murphy, Brewitt, Minturn, Lavinier, Austin.

SUBS: Brann, Brown, Trialist A, Hart, Cain, Trialist B, Darcy, Wakeling, Adeloye.

EFC starting XI: McDonnell, Clampin, Atangana, Martin (c), Carter, McCallum, Boldewijn, Langston, Hodson, Nwabuokei, Trialist.

SUBS: Taylor, Barlow, Rutherford, Quigley, Bragg, Stock, Chalwell, Simpson, Hughes.