SWINDON Town were Roofe-lessly punished by fierce rivals Oxford after Jordan Turnbull had left his teammates in the mire with a stupid first-half sending-off.

Kemar Roofe scored both goals for the Us either side of half-time as Town failed to adapt to life with one less man on the field.

It was the sending off of Turnbull that proved to be crucial. The defender showed little consideration for the situation as he lashed out with a silly kick on Jake Wright with just over half an hour gone.

He will now face a three matches on the sidelines with no natural replacement waiting in the wings due to Town’s defensive shortage.

Although Swindon showed excellent spirit to halt the Oxford charge, after the second half they never looked like fighting their way back into the contest. Swindon have now bowed out of the Football League Trophy two seasons in a row in the second round to teams from the league below.

The fact that by the end of the game Momar Bangoura had to be brought on to play as an emergency central defender after a serious injury to Bradley Barry shone further light on chairman Lee Power’s failure to provide his manager Mark Cooper with sufficient numbers in defence.

Shorn of eight players Cooper opted to go for a similar line-up to the one that brought him his last win at Crewe.

Drissa Traore and Anton Rodgers were stationed in front of the back four, with James Brophy, Jermaine Hylton and Nicky Ajose playing behind lone striker Jonathan Obika.

In terms of changes Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill started for the first time since the win at Gresty Road, Hylton for the first time since the opening day, while Traore and Rodgers, the other two to come in, had not featured since Colchester and Doncaster respectively.

There was plenty of passion as players flew into tackles, but there was little quality from either side in the opening exchanges. Play was breaking down when it came to the final pass or a defender would just nip back to make a tackle.

Callum O’Dowda on the Oxford left was causing problems as he looked to cut in from the flank. He had two early efforts which troubled Lawrence Vigouroux.

The first the keeper had to tip over for a corner. The second Bradley Barry did not close enough to Irish Under 21 international and Vigouroux watched helplessly as the ball clipped the frame of the goal and bounced clear.

Brophy was starting to enjoy himself and linking well with his teammates in the Us’ final third. One lovely move saw Town with the ball in the net, but Obika was ahead of play from Brophy’s pass and it was chalked off.

It was not long after that Turnbull made his side’s night immeasurably harder.

The clock had just gone beyond the 30 minute mark and the defender had gone forward for a set-piece. With the ball dead, Turnbull still tangling with Us skipper Wright and kicked out in front of the East Stand.

After taking some time to consider his decision referee Graham Ward pulled out the red card and Turnbull had to go.

With no back-ups in central defence to call on, Town had to reshuffle and were left looking very short in defence. Barry was put into centre-back, Brophy re-stationed at left-back, with Ormonde-Ottewill moving over to the right.

What followed was a shambolic last 15 minutes of the first half. It was like watching the occupants of a leaky dinghy trying to bail out water as the Oxford hordes poured forward into the gaps.

Initially shots from distance and crosses were dealt with, but soon enough the sheer volume of traffic coming towards Vigouroux’s goal was bound to tell.

With five minutes to go it finally did. Liam Sercombe weaved into the box with some neat footwork and was eventually challenged only for the ball to come to Roofe who slammed a low shot into the Town net to send the Kassam into raptures.

Town needed half-time but they still had five minutes to see out and did not look likely to make it out without seeing their goal breached once more.

Luckily Vigouroux was in fine form and made a number saves to keep the score respectable. He knocked on effort from Roofe away from his near post, palmed another wide from Baldock and saved the best of the lot for a curling Jordan Graham that he flicked on to the post.

There were sighs of relief when the half-time whistle finally came.

It did not take long after the break for Oxford to add a second. Roofe had threatened to add to his tally and did so when he got on the end of Graham’s fierce cross from the right. It was no more than the hosts deserved.

There was to be another blow from Swindon around the hour mark. Following an Oxford corner Barry was left prone on his own six yard line, after more than five minutes of treatment on the pitch he was stretchered off. Bangoura came on to make his debut in trying circumstances, out of position at centre-half.

By this stage Oxford were comfortable and Town were in disarray. The men in red were doing their best to stave off further damage by denying their opponents the ball. With so many players in unfamiliar roles and a man short it was no surprise that they struggled.

Town created nothing going forward, although Jeremy Balmy did at least try to create something following his introduction against his former club.

The closest that the contest came to another goal was into the 10 minutes added for Barry’s injury as Roofe collected a rare loose Vigouroux clearance and put his lofted effort just over the bar.

As it was the game was allowed to play out to a tame conclusion with the Us on top and Swindon looking to get back to Wiltshire with their pride intact.