Swindon 2 Rovers 1 

Coca-Cola League One

  

RESULT: Swindon Town 2 Bristol Rovers 1

 

Swindon scorer: Cox (2) 4, 81

Bristol Rovers scorer: Duffy 21

 

The ultimate farewell gift from Simon Cox means Swindon will be playing League One football at the County Ground next season.

 

Town's leading scorer - the target of potential big money bids from West Brom and QPR - on target twice, as Swindon sealed the win that takes them five points above the drop zone with only one game remaining.

 

Only Carlisle could have catched Town had they beaten Cheltenham in today's 3pm kick-off, but a draw means Swindon's last game of the season at Peterborough (who confirmed their own promotion with victory at Colchester) is now almost meaningless - much to manager Danny Wilson's relief.

 

"We needed the points today to make us safe and the players were excellent. I couldn't have asked more of them given the pressure of the situation," he said.

 

Dramatic start and finish

 

Always keenly contested, Swindon made the perfect derby start when one-up inside four minutes.

 

Cox side-footing into an empty net after a defensive mix-up between the Rovers goalkeeper and defender Byron Anthony. The Bristol centre-back eventually stretchered off after the pair collided when under pressure from Billy Paynter (pic below).

 

Key moment: Rovers' defender Byron Anthony collides with keeper Steve Phillips  calyx multimedia

 

Rovers then levelled after Darryl Duffy found the far corner of the net on the 21 minute mark, just after Patrick Kanyuka had also left the field with what has been confirmed as a knee injury.

 

Good value for the equaliser, Paul Trollope's side continued to apply pressure on the Town goal both before and just after half-time, before Jon-Paul McGovern came on for Hal Robson-Kanu on 65 minutes to sure up the Swindon midfield.

 

A change that almost brought immediate reward when Paynter was denied by a superb save from Phillips, before Cox headed inches five minutes later.

 

The winner eventually coming after Cox latched onto another defensive slip to fire home low and send the Town fans into raptures.

 

Defensive wall: Swindon Police closed County Road as part of crowd control for the visit of Bristol Rovers calyx multimedia

 

The League One table

 

1 Leicester 45 42 93
2 Peterborough 45 24 88
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3 Millwall 45 12 82
4 MK Dons 44 34 81
5 Leeds 45 25 81
6 Tranmere 45 13 73
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7 Scunthorpe 44 16 72
8 Southend 45 -5 68
9 Huddersfield 45 -3 67
10 Oldham 45 0 62
11 Walsall 45 -4 61
12 Bristol Rovers 45 15 60
13 Stockport 45 3 60
14 Colchester 45 -2 60
15 Leyton Orient 45 -12 55
16 Swindon 45 -3 52
17 Yeovil 45 -23 51
18 Hartlepool 45 -10 50
19 Northampton 44 0 49
20 Brighton 45 -16 49
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21 Carlisle 45 -15 47
22 Crewe 45 -20 46
23 Cheltenham 44 -35 39
24 Hereford 45 -36 34

 

Last game of the season

 

Peterborough (A)

Saturday 02 May 2009, 3:00pm

Coca-Cola League One