WHEN the New Year Honours List is revealed in a couple of weeks it is highly unlikely that anyone with County Ground connections will be recognised.

But Town groundsman Marcus Cassidy surely deserves a knighthood for his role in their crucial 2-1 victory over Sheffield Wednesday at the weekend.

While the rest of the country struggled to cope with the snow and ice that had swept the nation, Cassidy and his team worked all week to ensure that Swindon’s fixture was the only League One game to beat the big freeze.

And they fully took advantage of their rivals’ weekend off, with a goal in each half from Charlie Austin and Jon-Paul McGovern helping Town to victory and firing them six places up the table in the process.

Naturally, the players will grab all the headlines for an eye-catching performance in which they made a dangerous Owls outfit look decidedly ordinary at times, but inside the dressing room there was plenty of acknowledgement for the work which had taken place in the build-up to Saturday.

"It was massively important to get the win, and is credit to the groundsman in getting the game on," explained McGovern "The pitch was absolutely brilliant. It was probably a little bit firmer than we are normally used to, but we could still pass the ball on that surface.

"Being out there and playing, you would never have known it was the winter conditions.

"We did it justice in the end with the performance we put on in the end, and it was good to get three points.

"It keeps the pressure on the people around us, but we’re not looking too much at the table and are just taking every game as it comes.

"It was a good win, but we will just put it to the back of our heads now and move on to Tuesday."

Wednesday arrived at the County Ground on a run of six wins from their last seven fixtures, and although they made a bright start Alan Irvine’s side soon ran out of ideas.

Jermaine Johnson was a constant threat and appealed for an early penalty when he was bundled over by Sean Morrison.

Those pleas fell on deaf ears but he was soon on the offensive again, muscling his way past Morrison once more with keeper Phil Smith quick off his line to smother the danger.

Swindon slowly began to impose themselves on proceedings and Matt Ritchie nodded wide at the far post before forcing visiting stopper Nicky Weaver to save his close range effort with his legs.

But Town’s persistence paid off as they opened the scoring on 24 minutes. There appeared little on as McGovern received the ball on the right flank, but the wide man cut inside and dinked an inch-perfect ball over the Wednesday defence for Austin to chase.

The pass was so precise that Austin didn’t even need to break stride and instead fired a half-volley into the far top corner past the helpless Weaver.

But while they should have pushed on from there, the Owls struck back within six minutes in bizarre – and controversial – fashion.

As Lewis Buxton broke into the box Smith upended the full-back, and while everyone stopped expecting the award of a penalty, Clinton Morrison tapped home into the unguarded net.

Referee Mick Russell decided to play the advantage and awarded the goal, also choosing to book Smith for his challenge – much to the disgust of the visiting bench, who wanted the keeper to see red.

And the officials were the centre of attention again shortly before half time, ruling out Mark Beevers’ 42nd-minute effort as Clinton Morrison was deemed offside and interfering with play when the shot made its way through a crowd of players.

With the game finely in the balance at the break, Town began to dominate after the restart and Austin was inches away from his second of the afternoon when he slipped a shot past Weaver, but also agonisingly the wrong side of the upright.

At the other end substitute keeper David Lucas – on for the injured Smith – made an outstanding point blank stop to deny Chris Sedgwick’s header, and that was to prove pivotal as Swindon grabbed the winner on 70 minutes.

Michael Rose’s long throw was flicked on by Sean Morrison and McGovern reacted quickest to find the bottom corner with the outside of his boot.

Wednesday made changes in a bid to grab an equaliser, but although Tommy Spurr smashed a long-range strike against the crossbar, Town held on for three points and the promise of a healthier-looking League One table.

For all things Swindon Town, follow chief sports writer Anthony Marshall on Twitter at @stfcadver