So on a perfect autumnal evening at the Park, City and Swindon slug it out for an enjoyable 1-1 draw in front of a decent crowd of 5337. City lined up: Jansson; Seaborne, Taylor, Archibald-Henville, Duffy; Noone, Cozic, Harley, Dunne; Stewart, Corr.

 

In a lively start it was City who edged the opening exchanges, with Noone in particular looking sharp. As early as the second minute he showed some wonderful trickery down the left before whipping in a delicious low outswinger that just evaded the rushing Dunne. It wasn't all City though, as sixty seconds later Jansson had to be sharp to turn a smart long range free kick round the base of the post.

 

The two teams continued to cancel each other out with plenty of industry but little goalmouth action until midway through the half when once again Noone bamboozled the Swindon defence down the left before again sending in an identikit cross into the middle.

 

This time it was Stewart looking to capitalise, but under severe pressure from the defence the chance came to nothing.

 

On the half hour came probably City's best move: Jansson did superbly to pluck the ball from the head of an attacker in an overcrowded area before punting upfield for the lively Noone to chase. Unfortunately the Swindon keeper was equally as adept as his opposite number and made a fine save as Noone let fly with a fizzing drive from the edge of the box.

 

Ten minutes later Jansson was again called into action, this time tipping a point blank range blast up onto the bar and away, then in the closing moments of the half Seaborne's dink into Stewart on the edge of the box was laid off to Corr but he was crowded out by the defence.

 

Despite the very even nature of the first half, it took a mere eight minutes of the second for Swindon to take the lead. A deep corner to the far post saw the ball fall to the bonce of the giant Kevin Amankwaah some ten yards out. City's defence stood statuesque and big Kev didn't even have to jump to bullet the ball into the top corner of the net giving Jansson little chance and making it 1-0 to the visitors.

 

Understandably Swindon's tails were up and they began to push forward in numbers more regularly, and once again Jannson had to be sharp two minutes after the goal to smother a vicious 15 yard strike to his near post.

 

The fans celebrate the late equaliser

 

It wasn't all Swindon's way though, as in the 15th minute Noone produced a vicious near post strike of his own from a short free kick, however he was a long way out and in the end it was an easy - if painful on the fingertips - save from the keeper.

 

With 20 minutes gone the only things Corr and Stewart were doing fast was fading, so it was somewhat inevitable that they were replaced by the lightning quick duo of Fleetwood and Stansfield. Ten minutes later there was something of a scramble from a rare City corner with the ball eventually falling to Duffy patrolling the edge of the box, but his powerful low drive through a crowd of players drifted narrowly wide of the far post. Duffy again was involved a minute later crossing to Noone at the far post, but with defenders beaten and the goal seemingly at his mercy, he blasted wastefully wide from 15 yards.

 

With 15 minutes to go Tis pulled his masterstroke by introducing Logan at the expense of Troy, and for the first time in the game we had a real aerial presence up front. However, it didn't prevent Swindon for continuing to search for a second goal to make the game safe, and after a daft Seaborne foul on the edge of the box nearly got it from the resultant free kick. But once again Jannson showed superb althleticism to dive full length and push a ferocious low drive to the far post away to safety.

 

And then it was all City in a mad last five minutes as they sought desperately for a seemingly unlikely equaliser. First Noone saw a snapshot from nothing deflected for a corner, and then with the tension - and volume - rising Logie came to the rescue with 90 seconds left on the clock.

 

The ball found its way to Seaborne way out on the left and he swung in a peach of a cross to the near post. In burst Logie to bundle through the defence to plant a fine header from close range into the net and send three sides of the ground into delerium (or was it relief?)!

 

Craig Noone runs at the Swindon defence

 

After that City sought out an even more unlikely winner, but despite four minutes of stoppage time there was nothing doing so both sides had to be content with a point each.

 

But it's funny how football goes though. A very even first half was followed by a very one-sided second, with Swindon probably enjoying 80% of it. However City's 20% came right at the end, and in the end might even have nicked it, which would have been harsh on the visitors who looked a decent side with a good mixture of strength and pace that broke in numbers and at speed.

 

A little too quickly at times - according to the fans - as a number of times striker Ben Hutchinson seemed miles offside when bursting through on goal, but each time Jannson was his equal, including bravely diving at his feet to cop one in the gob from his boot when ironically he was actually flagged offside this time.

 

There's little else to say about Jansson other than he was quite simply brilliant. Which is a good thing, especially as he's here for another month due to Jones' recovery taking longer than expected.

 

In front of him Troy and Taylor had their work cut out, but one corner apart acquitted themselves well, and of the defence I thought full back Duffy in particular had a fine game. In the middle Harley again looks to always have time and space, but it was Noone who was the pick of the bunch out wide on the left.

 

Up front the front two worked hard for little reward in the first half, and simply ran out of steam in the second. The subs faired little better against a well drilled Swindon defence, with the exception of Logan who gave them a right old seeing to when he came on.

 

Good in the air, he also led the line well inviting others into the game through holding the ball up well and distributing intelligently. He also scored a timely goal too, with probably his only chance of the game so it was a good evening all round for the big man.

 

Which brings us to Saturday and the visit of Hartlepool - that's a long old poke innit? Hopefully, with three games in a week, Tis has been looking at all three games together when deciding his squads for each and that it'll be Logie's turn to have a crack from the start on Saturday.

 

On tonight's performance he certainly deserves to, but that's for Tis to decide and us to speculate upon.

 

And as for Saturday, well to be honest I can't wait. Tonight was a decent game I thought with both sides playing some pretty good football at times. Let's hope we have more of the same endeavour at the weekend - see you there.