A solid performance saw City earn their fifth win on the bounce after overcoming a Swindon Supermarine side who were clearly showing signs of fatigue after playing catch-up with their fixtures over the last few weeks.

City were in no mood to feel sorry for their hosts though as they aimed to grab the win that would see them cement their place in the play-off places and did so by taking an early grip on this game which they never released.

With Mark Smith forced out with injury, Gary Roberts reorganised his defence with Lee Chaffey moving into the centre, James Krause in at left-back and Tom Pepper coming in for his first start since signing from Hitchin.

Home stopper, Matt Bulman was called into early action to deal with a long range shot from Michael Frew, but he could do nothing soon when City took the lead after twelve minutes. Frew sprung the Supermarine offside trap and was clattered by the keeper. Neil Midgley made no mistake from the resulting penalty, smashing it down the middle of the goal.

Alan Griffin, who had given City a number of problems in the game at Milton Road, had a chance to level things when he made a clever run to get on the end of Mark Draycott’s through ball, but pulled his shot across goal and well wide of the far post. It turned out to be Swindon’s only opportunity of the half as City took control.

The Lilywhites underlined their dominance when they doubled their lead in the 24th minute. Steve Gentle, who has set up a number of goals since joining from Bedford, wrestled possession in the midfield and sent Frew clear with a delightful pass. Frew gobbled up the chance beating Bulman with a superb 25 yard lob.

Scott Neilson had been causing the home defence a headache on the right, but soon found himself coming in for some rough treatment and reacted to it, earning himself a yellow card. Sensibly, Roberts replaced him with Rob Nightingale soon after, as the clearly wound-up winger may well not have finished the match.

Gentle came close to putting the game out of sight just before half-time, but Adie Cambridge’s deep cross was a touch too high and the big striker could not keep his header down.

Supermarine reorganised after the break and looked a greater threat in the early stages with Chris Taylor driving in a shot that pinged off the top of the bar, but that was as good as it got for the home side as City steadily came back into it.

With City seemingly happy to keep Swindon at arms length and protect their lead, there seemed little likelyhood that a killer third goal would come along, However, City did go close on a couple of occasions with Gentle producing a spectacular hook over the bar and Frew, inches away from beating Bulman with a close range lob.

With little to play for, Swindon kept coming forward, but found Chaffey and Co in no mood to give anything away. Luke Hopper placed a header over the bar and Sam Morris produced a shot that was well dealt with by Zac Barrett, but the home side never looked likely to reduce the deficit and City eased to victory.