Swindon Town forced Crystal Palace into a sweat, but were well-beaten in the end, as they lost 5-1 to the Premier League side.
It was a big step up for Swindon, and a very different test from their first three friendlies, taking on Crystal Palace, but they set about the task with vigour.
Inside five minutes, their swarming around the Palace defenders had yielded two regains inside the final third, and one massive punt long through sheer panic.
However, there were a few early warning signs when their outer walls were breached, and that led to the opener. Having won a corner, Will Hughes’ delivery was headed away by Stephan Negru. The ball dropped to Ollie Clarke, who waited too long to clear and ended up smacking it off Eddie Nketiah and into the net.
This seemed to dent confidence a bit, and Swindon were loose on the ball, enabling Jesurun Rak-Sakyi and Romain Esse to go close from a pair of free kicks from the edge of the box.
Rak-Sakyi then nearly added the second, after Oscar Mingueza and Hughes exchanged passes down the right, setting him into the box, but after chopping inside, Town managed to get bodies back and block his shot.
The second did arrive after 20 minutes, when Esse picked up space on the left side of the box and drilled one across, which Nketiah slid in to divert home.
But this is when things changed, sloppiness on the ball from the Premier League side, and the energy from Town not slipping saw them begin to cause havoc.
Paul Glatzel won the ball back on the right, exchanged passes and was chopped down in the penalty area. Aaron Drinan stepped up and hit the post from the resulting penalty, but it was a sign that Town heeded.
They continued to swarm, and the mistakes kept coming. Fletcher Holman won the ball on halfway line and raced away into the half, chopping inside the defender and curling wonderfully into the bottom corner.
Holman could even have had a second, when Joel McGregor found Matty Virtue, who fed Holman. He again chopped inside his defender and saw a shot saved at the near post.
Town emerged with the same team, but were soon undone. A long ball over the top set Matheus França through on goal, and he lifted it over Ripley.
Two minutes later, Palace won a fortuitous penalty, and the Brazilian stepped up and drilled in his second.
That goal put the Premier League side back in total control, and Franca eventually put it to bed with his hat-trick goal eight minutes from time on a swift counter.
The end score looked ugly, but Swindon displayed plenty in the first half to make them pleased with the exercise.
CPFC first half XI: Benitez, Mitchell, Rak-Sakyi, Hughes, Nketiah, Walker-Smith, Adaramola, Hughes, Esse, King, Mingueza.
CPFC second half XI: Matthews, Jemide, Canvot, Drakes-Thomas, Benamar, Johnson, Sosa, Franca, Doucoure, Devenny, Cardines.
STFC first half XI: Ripley, Clark, Kilkenny, Negru, Clarke, Glatzel, Holman, Trialist A, Drinan, Virtue, McGregor.
STFC second half XI: Ripley, Mabete, Ball, Nichols, Trialist B, Debayo, Middlemas, Trialist C, Kirkman, Trialist D, Millard.
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