YASER Kasim’s late winner saw Swindon Town put their recent woes to one side with a superb victory on the road at promotion-chasing Bolton Wanderers.

Swindon shattered their six-match winless run in League One by coming from behind to become only the second team to take all three points at the Macron Stadium in the league so far this season.

After arriving at the County Ground by the bucketload in midweek, all four of Town’s midweek loan signings were parachuted straight into Luke Williams’ starting 11 at the Macron.

The returning Ben Gladwin formed one of the two central points of a diamond-shaped midfield alongside Charlie Colkett, one of the trio of Chelsea youngsters to have swapped west London for Wiltshire for the remainder of the season.

Colkett’s Stamford Bridge team-mates Fankaty Dabo and Islam Feruz began the game at left-back – Swindon were without both the injured Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill and suspended James Brophy – and up front respectively.

Forward Feruz’s start saw him take the place of the absent Jonathan Obika, with Raphael Branco helming the ship as captain as Town made five changes from the team that started their disappointing draw with Shrewsbury seven days previous.

Yaser Kasim also came in for his first start since Boxing Day but inside the second minute, he was closed down by two white shirts not far outside his own penalty area and that allowed Bolton’s top-scorer Zach Clough to drive forward and sting the palms of Lawrence Vigouroux with a well-hit effort.

In the seventh minute, Clough took aim again from outside the box, with Vigouroux holding on to his curling side-footed attempt, and while Ben Gladwin’s blocked shot on the edge of the area was as close as the visitors came to significantly threatening in the opening stages, the men in red felt themselves into the contest.

However, Bolton’s Clough remained a danger and shortly before the half-hour mark, he lashed a devilish cross-cum-shot across the Swindon area, but no team-mate in white was adequately positioned to make contact as the ball whizzed past the upright.

With 38 minutes on the clock, forward Clough threatened yet again.

After debutant Colkett had shown off some nifty footwork, Kasim was caught in possession and the ball was coughed up to striker Gary Madine, who drove forward before going down easily under the attentions of Branco.

From a free-kick just on the edge of the Town box, 21-year-old Clough hit a dipping effort aimed for the top corner but his strike was met by the fists of a diving Vigourouox.

Shortly afterwards, Swindon created their best chance of the game so far as Luke Norris did well to turn experienced defender David Wheater on the edge of the area before laying the ball off to strike partner Feruz, but he saw his strike charged down and take two deflections before rolling harmlessly into the arms of goalie Ben Alnwick.

With two minutes of the half remaining, ire poured down from the stands at the Macron as Branco, who was sent off for an elbow on Lawrie Wilson when the two teams met at the County Ground in October and had already taken a whack to the face earlier on, appeared to catch Madine with a flailing arm as the striker had his eyes on James Henry’s delivery.

Madine and his manager Phil Parkinson weren’t shy in informing the officials of their disgust but Town defender Branco escaped any sanction from referee Mark Heywood.

With the score goalless at half-time, it took just three minutes for the hosts to get the opening goal they so desperately craved but it didn’t come from the most likely source.

Ex-Liverpool man Jay Spearing whipped in an inswinging corner and it was met by the colossal Wheater, who found space to swing his right boot and slam home a volley off the underside of the crossbar.

After getting their noses in front, Bolton had their tails up and swarmed forward time and again, with only the upright preventing Henry from squeezing a back-post header past Vigouroux.

Town were in need of some inspiration and on 65 minutes, it duly arrived, with two of the new boys at the fore.

Colkett clipped a sublime aerial ball over the defence and into the path of Norris and although the frontman was forced wide, he held off the attentions of Wilson before cutting back to allow Gladwin to smash a scorcher past Alnwick.

Having hauled themselves back on to level terms, Swindon should have been 2-1 up five minutes afterwards when John Goddard drove to the byline and slid the ball into the path of the arriving Kasim, but the midfielder lost his balance and couldn’t provide the finishing touch.

However, Bolton were hardly going to take this Town resurgence lying down and at the other end, they lay siege to the Swindon goal, with Henry hitting the post with a low strike and Josh Vela seeing a strike deflected over the crossbar.

The hell-for-leather theme continued as Clough drew a save from Vigouroux and substitute Jermaine Hylton crossed for Colkett to hit a back-post volley but his strike was excellently blocked by a despairing Wheater.

And then came the decisive moment as Swindon strode forward with purpose once again and as the ball was stood up to the far post, Kasim arrived and made up for his earlier miss by dispatching a perfectly-timed volley to send the away end into raptures.

There was still time for the hosts’ Madine to head just over the bar and Norris to have a shot turned around the post by Alnwick but the day belonged to Town.