Swindon Town wrap up their pre-season campaign with a thumping 6-0 win over Melksham Town

Keshi Anderson was the star of the show as the player that has seemingly fallen out of favour at the County Ground scooped a hat-trick against Swindon’s Southern League opponents.

Taylor Curran and Sidy Sanokho grabbed a goal each while trialist Dom Tear, who featured up front as Richie Wellens continues his search for another striker, also scored.

Wellens started with his final three trialists of pre-season, as well as a trio of players he had previously expressed a desire to see leave the club to free up ‘sizable’ wages.

Anderson, Toumani Diagouraga and Jermaine McGlashan accompanied a largely youthful Swindon Town starting XI.

Trialist Ted Smith was given his chance between the posts while Tyler Reid, Curran, Tom Broadbent and Joe Romanski made up the back four.

Another trialist, Sanohko, started in midfield alongside Diagouraga, Anderson and McGlashan.

Scott Twine and Tear began the game up front.

Swindon started proceedings in unconvincing fashion and were only saved from going a goal behind with the first two minutes by the linesman’s flag.

Melksham swung a corner into the box that was headed goalwards and, after a good, low save from Smith, Dan Dempsey poked home, only to be denied by the offside flag.

Despite early nerves from the second-string outfit, Swindon opened their account for the evening in the fifth minute as Anderson latched onto a long ball before steadying himself and rolling the ball home.

The football league side doubled their lead two minutes later.

Goalscorer Anderson turned provider as he swung in a corner and Curran – who had been handed the captaincy for the evening - poked into the back of the net.

With 15 minutes on the clock, Town made it three after McGlashan put a cross onto the head of the Tear who then nodded into the net from close range.

Tyler Reid flashed a powerful drive past the post while Scott Twine forced an excellent save from Melksham goalkeeper, Josh Dempsey midway through the first half.

With the score at 3-0, Swindon continued to dominate possession and territory while the first half followed a similar theme to most pre-season tests – slow and lacking in action.

But with time expiring in the first 45, Anderson doubled his tally for the night thanks to a close-range tap in before Sanokho did his chances of picking up a Town contract no harm as he lashed in a long-range effort from the right corner of the box.

Dan Ballard and Luke Haines came on at half-time to replace Tom Broadbent and Tyler Reid, respectively.

Following a largely actionless start to the second half, the ostracized Anderson completed his hat-trick with a powerfully hit free-kick that floated over the head of home stopper, Dempsey.

Trialist Tear saw his night cut short as he was replaced by Ralph Graham midway through the second period while very little action featured in the final 20 minutes.

Scott Twine curled a close-range free-kick well over before Melksham began to lose their cool late on and some rash challenges threatened to take the shine off a respectable outing for the home side.

Melksham did have a couple of late chances to restore some pride, but Ballard got back well to head off the line before blocking a late shot on the edge of the box.