Swindon 3 - 0 Rochdale

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Joe Bunney was sent off in the 72nd minute

Rochdale’s winning run came to an abrupt halt as Swindon Town brushed them aside at The County Ground. Two first half goals set The Robins on the way to victory although Ian Henderson saw his penalty saved just after the half time interval that would have made the scoreline 2-1. Joe Bunney was shown a straight red card for a push after he’d been fouled before home skipper Nathan Thompson headed home late on seal the win.

After victory over Bury on Saturday, Keith Hill named an unchanged side for this long Tuesday evening trip to Wiltshire. The first half saw very little in the way of goal mouth action although the two moments of note ended in Swindon goals. A throw in from the right was flicked through to Furlong who reacted quickest to drill a low shot into the far bottom corner to open the scoring.

Eight minutes later and the dangerous Nathan Delfouneso raced clear after a defence splitting pass to fire past Lillis to send the hosts in at the break 2-0 to the good.

Hill made a double change at the break as he looked to address the lethargic performance from his players in the first 45 minutes. Andy Cannon and Oli Rathbone came on for the ineffective duo of Steven Davies and Nat Mendez-Laing.

Dale had a glorious opportunity to get back into the game just 60 seconds into the second period when Joe Rafferty was hauled to the ground by Tom Smith inside the area. Henderson, who scored from the spot on Saturday, opted for power over precision but Lawrence Vigouroux guessed the correct way to tip his spot kick onto the crossbar.

With that penalty miss, you kind of got the impression it wouldn’t be Dale’s night and so it proved.

Wanting to take a quick throw in, Joe Bunney was kicked by Darnell Furlong which provoked the young Dale full back who reacted with a push. Furlong went to ground as if the push was far more sinister and when the referee had processed the incident; he opted to show a yellow card to Furlong but a straight red card to Bunney.

It seemed from then on it would be damage limitation for Rochdale.

A soft free kick was awarded against Cannon on the Swindon left with Rodgers whipping a delightful ball into the area where Thompson was on hand to glance a header beyond Lillis in the 80th minute to finish the scoring.

Rochdale: Lillis, Rafferty, Keane, Canavan, Bunney, Camps, Lund (Odelusi 64), Mendez-Laing (Rathbone 45), Davies (Cannon 45), Henderson (c), Andrew
Subs: (not used) Logan, McGahey, McDermott, Morley

Swindon: Vigouroux, Furlong, Thompson (c), Thomas, Brophy, Rodgers, Smith, Landolo (Evans 81), Murray (Norris 67), Goddard (Barry 67), Delfouneso
Subs: (not used) Henry, Georgaklis, Ouldridge, Twine

Referee: Mr G Ward
Assistants: Mr D Bushell & Mr C Hicks
Fourth Official: Mr B Malone

Attendance: 6,048