Swansea City suffered defeat in their totesport.com Combination fixture against Swindon Town at the County Ground with Welsh U-21 international Billy Bodin on target with a goal in each half, writes Robert Clement.

The Swansea side consisted entirely of former and current youth players, apart from Austrian front-man Besian Idrizaj who made a late appearance at Vicarage Road in the Championship victory against Watford the night before.

It took the Swans only five minutes to create a positive goalscoring option in bitterly cold conditions with Lee Lucas - back in the side following an injury received against Southampton at the Gnoll recently - despatching a 30-yard speculative drive narrowly over the top.

Fifteen minutes later skipper Daniel Sheehan picked out the lively Lucas, and on this occasion he brought goalkeeper Phil Smith into action following a right-sided inswinger cross.

The Robins finally responded midway into the half when a probing run into Swansea territory by Matt Barnes forced David Cornell to stretch up to gather the well timed angled delivery.

Swindon were fortunate not to be reduced to 10 men four minutes prior to the turnaround when Haiti international Lescinal Jean-Francois hauled down Idrizaj with him clean through on goal, just outside the penalty area, but referee Dermot Gallagher was kind to the midfielder by not booking him.

Regrettably, Swansea were unable to make the most of the goalscoring chance, with Chad Bond fiercely sending the ball over the four-man wall and also the goalframe.

The Wiltshire hosts then produced a neat passing move which saw Mark Marshall lay the ball into the path of Bodin and he let rip with a thunderous effort which flew into the top corner of the Swansea net.

Swansea began the second half brightly, and within three minutes Idrizaj displayed a positive attitude, making a determine route into the penalty area but with only Smith to confront, it was the 'keeper who prevented the equaliser struck from four yards out.

Swindon gradually began to display attacking assertiveness, and when a Jean-Francois shot took a deflection, to then strike Sheehan's hand, Gallagher had no hesitation but to point to the spot and Marshall, the former Eastleigh striker, did the rest to drill into the bottom corner.

Swansea went further behind on 75 minutes when Michael Timlin slid the ball through to the impressive Bodin and the Welsh player, who had also been capped at under 17 and 19 level, finished the attacking movement off with a neat volley into the net from just inside the box.

With the clock ticking down the Swans made a late threat to move off the mark, with James Burgin engineering a left side route forward to supply the supporting Casey Thomas, but Smith saved his accurate finishing.

"I thought that Swindon were the stronger side, and moved the ball around much quicker than us," said reserve team coach Colin Pascoe.

"We fielded a very young side, against a strong mentally minded Swindon outfit, and when they had possession they passed the ball well and also swiftly moved into spaces