SWINDON Supermarine boss Lee Spalding was pleased with his side’s resilience as they advanced to the third round of the Wiltshire Senior Cup last night after a 2-1 win away at Highworth Town.

Supermarine looked comfortable in the first half and created several half-chances, but wasted them which prompted frustration.

While Spalding was unhappy with his side’s inaccuracy when shooting, he did take some comfort from the fact that they were able to change their style to grind out a result.

He said: “In the first half, I thought we played some good football, we kept the ball well, especially for the first 25 minutes.

“But I thought we lost our way a little bit. We were passing for the sake of passing and we didn’t have that cutting edge, that final pass where we could play through them. Second half, I thought we did that a lot better.

“After they scored the goal, I thought we were a lot more direct. We played the ball forward quicker, got down the outside of them and scored two really good goals so I am really pleased.”

Marine began proceedings in control and looked most likely to open the scoring at the Elms.

Stuart Fleetwood and Connor Thompson were guilty of wasting chances for the away side while Ryan Campbell did well to burst past a Highworth defender and sting the palms of home ‘keeper Connor Johns.

Supermarine continued to create chances but showed the type of form that highlighted their recent struggles in front of goal.

Midway through the first half, Highworth nearly made the away side pay for being so wasteful. An in-swinging corner was patted down by on-loan goalkeeper Will Henry, but defender Tom Cole lacked composure and hit his shot wide

After the restart, Highworth looked reinvigorated and got their reward for staying in the game. A hopeful through-ball was picked up by Toumani Sidibi who showed excellent composure to slot past Henry and put Town a goal up.

Supermarine nearly hit back instantly when Thompson crashed a right footed shot against the upright from the edge of the area.

Marine continued to pile on the pressure and only two smart saves from Johns prevented Brad Hooper and then McDonagh equalising.

Johns continued to impress as he once again kept out Campbell with a good low save down to his right.

But with ten minutes remaining, Johns was finally beaten. Stuart Fleetwood kept the ball well in the box before crossing for McDonagh to tap in the simplest of equalisers.

And only a minute later their roles were reversed.

McDonagh drove at the Town defence before selflessly teeing up Fleetwood to curl Marine into the next round.