Swindon cruise to the third round

A brilliant solo effort from Matt Ritchie was enough for Swindon to progress to the third round of the F.A Cup.

For a second round in a row Paolo Di Canio’s side defeated a League One club; following their impressive 4-1 victory over Huddersfield with a strong 1-0 away victory against a poor Colchester side.

In a tepid first half, neither side controlled the game; however Swindon came out of the traps the stronger and Ritchie’s second half strike meant the best team progressed.

Colchester missed the game’s real first opportunity as Ashley Vincent failed to hit the target when well placed.

Kayode Odejayi, the man who famously knocked Chelsea out of the cup in 2007, won the ball in the middle of the pitch and found Vincent with a perfect through ball; however the winger decided against squaring the ball for Ian Henderson and went for goal, only to blaze horribly over, must to the frustration of the willing Henderson.

Brian Wilson did brilliantly to ensure the game stayed goalless, clearing heroically off the line from an Aden Flint header, which gave Ben Williams no chance in the Colchester goal.

If Flint was unlucky to see his chance fail to break the deadlock, then Ritchie was wasteful as he somehow contrived to put wide after rounding Williams. Alan McCormack found Ritchie brilliantly, and once the striker rounded Williams the ground expected the net to bulge, only for Ritchie to put wide.

Colchester had lost both league games following their first round stroll away to Crewe and their poor form had continued into this match as it wouldn’t have been obvious to a neutral which side were the League One outfit.

Swindon deservedly opened the scoring in the second half as Ritchie cut inside with devastating effects. Swindon engineered a move down their right as Ritchie knocked the ball past Ben Coker before unleashing a curling effort past Williams in the Colchester goal.

With a tirade of abuse from the home faithful, a late Colchester onslaught never occurred and Swindon held on comfortably.

Joshua Jones