EOIN Doyle struck a superb hat-trick to fire Swindon Town to a second League Two victory in the space of five days after an excellent away-day performance at Crawley Town this afternoon.

Just as he had been in Tuesday night’s 1-0 victory at home to Stevenage, Doyle was the hero for Richie Wellens’ side at Broadfield Stadium.

The Irish striker book-ended the first half with a brace of goals and completed his treble on the hour mark before Jerry Yates rounded off the scoring with a fourth at the death.

Already the division’s top scorer, Doyle – who is only on-loan from Bradford City – has now taken his tally to 13 goals in 13 League Two games for Swindon this season.

Swindon got off to a dream start and broke the deadlock with just five minutes on the clock as Doyle picked up where he left off against Stevenage in midweek to continue his hot streak in front of goal.

The visitors had already threatened before the Irish striker’s opening goal, with Diallang Jaiyesimi seeing a shot blocked in a crowded box by David Sesay.

Less than a minute later, the deadlock was broken as Anthony Grant pounced on a bobbling ball on the edge of the Crawley box before racing to the byline and cutting across the face of goal where Doyle was left unmarked to lash home from six yards.

Almost 20 minutes were on the clock before Crawley mounted their first attack of note as Ashley Nathaniel-George shot narrowly wide from the edge of the box.

Swindon were forced into a change on the half-hour mark as Lloyd Isgrove succumbed to a hamstring injury as a result of his own lunging challenge, with Keshi Anderson sent on in his place.

Crawley looked to capitalise as the visitors reshuffled and were appealing for a penalty less than three minutes after the substitution.

Ashley Nadesan chased a ball over the top, with visiting goalkeeper Steven Benda rushing from his line to challenge him on the edge of the box. Although the Crawley striker went down, referee Michael Salisbury waved play on.

That began a good spell for the home side and Nadesan looked to be through on goal again shortly afterwards but Grant recovered well to deny him a shot.

The Crawley forward then turned provider, stabbing the ball through to Josh Doherty in the box but he blazed over the bar on the stretch under pressure from Mathieu Baudry.

Swindon weathered the storm and doubled their advantage two minutes before the break with a lovely team goal as Doyle notched his second of the day.

Michael Doughty looped the ball in behind the home defence up the left, Anderson gave chase and held play up before back-heeling into the path of the charging Dion Donohue, who delivered a perfect cross for Doyle to plant home a firm diving header.

The lead could have been three but for the woodwork shortly afterwards as Doughty’s curling effort from 25 yard looped over Crawley keeper Glenn Morris but came back off the crossbar.

The first half had been littered with breaks and seven minutes of stoppage time were added on before the interval.

That meant there was still time for one more chance, and this time the woodwork came to Swindon’s rescue as Nathan Ferguson saw a low drilled effort from 30 yards clatter the post as the visitors held onto their two-goal cushion as they headed back to the changing rooms.

Chances did not come so freely after the break, with the next big one coming on the hour – although Yates fluffed his lines and miscued the ball after finding space to meet a free-kick into the box.

The visitors did not need to wait much longer for their next goal, though, and Doyle completed a superb hat-trick little more than a minute later.

Anderson slipped him in on the edge of the box and the Irish striker raced through before beating the advancing Morris with a cool finish.

There was no sign of Swindon easing off and they continued to attack, with Yates feeding Anderson in the six-yard box only for Morris to smother the ball at his feet.

Chances continued to come and a flurried passage saw Doughty, Anderson and Yates all have sights of goal kept out by either good work from Morris or a despairing defensive body.

But Swindon were not content to wind the clock down and finally grabbed a fourth goal three minutes from time.

Substitute Kaiyne Woolery drove to the byline before drilling back across goal where Yates was on hand to finish the job and complete a superb day for Swindon.

CRAWLEY TOWN (4-4-2): Morris; Sesay, Tunnicliffe, Dallison (c), Doherty; Grego-Cox, Camara (Van Velzen 58), Ferguson, Nathaniel-George; Bloomfield (Palmer 78), Nadesan (Allarakhia 51). Subs not used: Luyambula, Young, Sendles-White, Galach.

SWINDON TOWN (4-4-2): Benda; Hunt, Baudry (c), Fryers, Donohue; Isgrove (Anderson 30), Doughty, Grant, Jaiyesimi (Lyden 55), Doyle (Woolery 79), Yates. Subs not used: McCormick, Broadbent, Iandolo, Zakuani.

Referee: Michael Salisbury

Attendance: 2,601