SWINDON Town suffered their second defeat in three games as they fell to a 2-1 defeat to Oldham on a cold night at Boundary Park.

It was a horror start for the travelling side as strikes from Mike Jones and Conor Wilkinson, in the space of less than 60 seconds, gave Swindon an uphill battle from the 11th minute.

A speculative second half strike from Massimo Luongo got Swindon back into the game but despite dominating possession in the second period they were unable to rescue a point from the tie to lose ground to Bristol City at the top of the table.

Swindon were forced to have only six men on the bench again after Nathan Byrne missed the trip through illness and Nathan Thompson was not deemed fit enough to make the squad.

Oldham pressed Swindon high up the pitch early on with Wes Foderingham in particular coming under increased pressure and being forced to kick to touch on more than one occasion.

A warning sign came in the seventh minute when Raphael Branco was turned by Jonathan Forte and the Brazilian was forced to bring the forward to the ground, finding his way into the referee’s note-book with Forte bearing down on goal.

A mad two minutes ensued for Swindon Town in the tenth minute.

It started when Wilkinson was given too much space down the right behind Harry Toffolo, who had a disappointing evening, and his ball found Jones who diverted the ball with his left foot across the face of Foderingham into the far corner.

It was sloppy from Swindon straight from the kick off as the ball was given away to Wilkinson who advanced on goal and one-on-one with Foderingham calmly side footed the ball home.

Swindon were given a break when Wilkinson, who had been looking dangerous from the off, was taken off after picking up a knock to be replaced by Rhys Murphy.

The visitors got themselves back into the game a bit but were lucky not to be three goals down in the 24th minute when Forte’s header beat Foderingham but the linesman’s flag was already up to rule out the strike.

Swindon continued to find a way back into the game and with the half getting on Oldham’s early pressure began to wane but despite several good attempts from Ben Gladwin they were unable to half the deficit before the break.

Swindon came out of the break a lot stronger and dominated possession in the early parts of proceedings.

However it was a fine save from Foderingham that kept Swindon in the game. A good ball in found two Oldham players in acres of space in the six yard box but Foderingham was able to get a strong hand to a header from Rhys Murphy to deny the substitute.

Swindon found a way back into the tie in the 67th minute when a pop-shot from Massimo Luongo caught out everyone.

The shot took a nasty bobble on its way through and over the diving arm of Kean to give Swindon a life-line.

Cooper rang the changes bringing on Andy Williams and Jermaine Hylton to replace Jon Obika and Michael Smith in the second half and it was Williams who should have restored parity with ten minutes remaining.

Toffolo put in a great ball from the right but, unmarked, and only six yards out the forward somehow managed to head the ball backwards rather than towards the Oldham goal.

The Norwich loanee then went close himself with five minutes to go as Branco flicked the ball behind the Oldham back-line but Toffolo could only fire his shot straight at Kean.

Swindon could not find a way back and lost ground to top of the league Bristol City who won at home to Port Vale 3-1.