ON-THE-WHISTLE MATCH REPORT: Swindon Town 1-4 Barnet

A Shaquile Coultihurst hat-trick and a Jamal Campbell-Ryce penalty condemned Swindon to back-to-back home defeats.

Coultihurst benefitted from a defensive mix-up before making it 1-0 to the visitors and six minutes later Jamal Campbell-Ryce made it 2-0 from the penalty spot.

To make matters worse for the hosts, winger Donal McDermott was rightly sent off five minutes in to the second half.

Coultihurst then added two more goals in the second half to make it a truly awful afternoon for the Robins. 

Just like Crawley last week, Swindon started the brighter of the two sides, but their heads dropped once they conceded a sloppy goal.

Swindon could have taken the lead in the eighth minute when Amine Linganzi's side-foot shot was blocked and then debutant Keshi Anderson hit the rebound over via a deflection off a Barnet defender.

Barnet broke the deadlock though when, after a lack of communication between Chris Robertson and Lawrence Vigouroux, Coultihurst nipped in to tap it past the pair before having the easiest task in the world to tap into a gaping net from a yard out.

With 15 minutes on the clock, Barnet defender Ricardo Almeida Santos was denied by the fingertips of Vigouroux when Santos headed a free-kick towards goal.

From the resulting corner, captain Olly Lancashire pulled the shirt of Santos and the referee, James Linington, pointed to the spot.

Ex-Town man Jamal Campbell-Ryce steadied himself and nestled the spot-kick past Vigouroux, who dived the right way, and into the bottom left corner for 2-0 with just 16 minutes played. 

Swindon struggled to get a foothold in the half since that and could have been 3-0 down when Barnet broke on the counter-attack, but both Dave Tarpey and Campbell-Ryce had efforts blocked by Ben Purkiss. 

The result was pretty much a formality in the 50th minute when McDermott, who had impressed in the first half, was rightly sent off for a horrific two-footed challenge on David Tutonda.

Despite being a man light, Town improved in the second half and came close twice in a matter of minutes.

First, Chris Robertson sent a powerful header Craig Ross' way from a corner but the keeper made a terrific palmed save to deny the defender.

Keshi Anderson also hit a decent effort from a tight angle, but that was easily saved by Ross.

Inbetween those two Town chances, however, Barnet could have been 3-0 up. Tarpey raced clear on the counter and chipped over the on-rushing Vigouroux but his effort came back off the bar.

It was 3-0 on 65 minutes when Barnet netted a laughably easy goal. Profiting from having an extra man, the Bees were knocking the ball around under no pressure and Campbell-Ryce fed Coultihurst who had no difficulty at all in slotting the ball past Vigouroux.

Five minutes later, Coultihurst grabbed his hat-trick when the forward bent in an unstoppable shot to pile even more misery on the majority of the County Ground crowd.

Norris nodded in a late consolation for Town with 12 minutes left when he nodded in a left-sided Chris Hussey cross.

Barnet were also reduced to ten men in the closing ten minutes when Andre Blackman was shown a straight red card for an elbow on sub Paul Mullin, but Town never had a chance of getting a result.

Swindon Town: Vigouroux, Purkiss, Lancashire (Conroy '45), Robertson, Hussey, McDermott, M Taylor (Mullin '45), Linganzi, Elsnik, Anderson (Woolery '65), Norris

Subs not used: Charles-Cook, Brophy, Dunne, Gordon

Barnet: Ross, Santos, Nelson, Tutonda, H Taylor, Vilhete, J Taylor (Fonguck '90), Blackman, Tarpey (Akpa-Akpro '60), Coultihurst (Mason-Clark '88)

Subs not used: McKenzie-Lyle, Clough, Bover, Amaluzor

Man of the match: Shaquile Coultihurst

Attendance: 5,895

Referee: James Linington