A HIGHLY-youthful Swindon Town side lost 2-0 to Corsham Town in a pre-season friendly at the Southbank on Tuesday night.

With the exception of goalkeeper Conor Brann – who secured his first 90 minutes for the club – there were no first-team professionals in all green for the League Two club, and the management team of Michael Flynn and Wayne Hatswell were also absent.

A handful of trialists featured for Swindon, but they were also Under-18s and unlikely to break into Flynn’s group in the immediate future.

The Robins endured a difficult start full of pressure and duly went a goal down in just the eighth minute. A deep, searching cross from Corsham’s left-back picked out Niekell Plummer in acres of space through the centre, and he acrobatically controlled a volley into the bottom left corner past Brann.

As the hosts continued to see more of the ball, there were a couple of bright moments for the Robins – mostly when the ball was at the feet of number 11, Hubbard. A couple of jinking runs from the teenager who looked like an even younger Louie Barry caught the eye of those who follow the League Two team.

There were very few chances in the second half of the first period, with only Dan Demkiv testing Brann via a fierce drive from a tight angle and a couple of wildly off-target shots from Swindon’s youngsters.

The visitors were not disheartened by their opening half, though, and enjoyed much of the play after the teams switched ends. Trialist B hammered a long-range shot on target shortly into the second half, while Abu Kanu saw a half-volley well blocked later on.

Excellent defending from Tombs on the floor denied Plummer and Corsham a second just before the hour mark, and that bravery almost allowed Swindon to equalise midway through. The Robins’ Gonzalez chipped a cross from the right to the back post, and a late runner pulled his effort back across goal from a tight angle.

Pre-season friendlies don’t always have much bite to them, but the temperature had been steadily turned up by a series of committed tackles on Tuesday night. With 20 minutes to play, both sides picked up a yellow card each for heavy tackles.

Despite the will and effort of Swindon’s young squad, there was to be no deserved equaliser late on. Instead, Corsham doubled their lead with all but the final kick of the game. A driven corner found an unmarked Mark Cooper, and the Quarrymen’s skipper powered his header into the side netting to seal the result.