Swindon Town 3 Brentford 2 (Hunt 33, Strevens 60)

Brentford’s six-week unbeaten run finally came to an end against promotion-chasing Swindon Town at the County Ground on Saturday.

After 11 games without defeat, two goals from prolific striker Billy Paynter helped lift Swindon to within a point of automatic promotion with one game left.

Despite looking tired at times, Brentford came close to taking a point from the contest, with poor defending letting them down for Swindon’s goals.

Afterwards Bees boss Andy Scott couldn’t fault his players’ efforts: “Look at the side we had out and the bench and we are running on empty.

"They gave a good account of themselves and I couldn’t really change things too much.

“It just shows how close we are. We’re very close - and Swindon could go up automatically.”

Scott made two changes to his side, with Danny Foster and Pim Balkestein coming in to defence, with Sam Saunders and Lionel Ainsworth dropping out of the squad.

Swindon had an early chance, when Frank Nouble found some space down the right and cut the ball back to Jonathan Douglas, who failed to trouble Wojciech Szczesny as he shot over from just outside the box.

Swindon came close again when Paynter forced Szczesny to tip the ball over the bar with a powerful shot from 25 yards.

The Robins took the lead shortly after, when Danny Ward skipped past Karleigh Osborne down the right and crossed to the near post for Paynter to stroke the ball past Szczesny.

The Bees came close to equalising when Swindon failed to clear the ball from the edge of the box and Toumani Diagouraga volleyed just wide of the left-hand post.

Midway through the half, Ward picked the ball up on the right and sent a rasping shot across Szczesny’s goal.

As Brentford came back into it, Charlie MacDonald played in David Hunt down the right, who cut the ball back to Sam Wood in the middle of the box, but he completely mishit his shot and the ball went wide.

The Bees deservedly drew level when MacDonald and Hunt again combined down the right, and after Hunt’s first shot was blocked by David Lucas, MacDonald played it back to him and his curling shot found the bottom left-hand corner of the net.

Swindon took the lead again when Jon-Paul McGovern crossed from the right and, with the Bees defence guilty of ball watching, the ball ran to Ward, who tapped it past Szczesny.

After the break, Swindon extended their lead on the hour mark, when Nouble crossed from the right and Paynter’s glancing header from six yards out did just enough to beat the fingertips of the diving Szczesny.

The Bees hit back immediately, when they broke down the left and, after some slopping defending from Swindon and a blocked shot from MacDonald, Ben Strevens poked the ball home from close range.

The second half then largely fizzled out as Swindon hung on for the three points that gave their promotion bid a huge boost.

There was concern for the Bees when there was a long delay while Balkestein was carried off with what looked like a potentially serious head injury.

Deep into stoppage-time, Brentford pressed forward as Swindon’s nerves threatened to get the better of them, but the Bees could not find a way to draw level, with substitute Mark Phillips coming closest but his effort was just over the bar.

Brentford: Szczesny; Foster, Osborne, Legge, Balkestein (sub Bean 90); Hunt, O’Connor, Diagouraga, Wood (sub Phillips 90); Strevens, MacDonald

Subs (not used): Bull, Franks, Ferrell, Blake

Attendance: 10,465 (860 Bees)

Goals: Hunt 33, Strevens 60

Man of the match: Sam Wood

Match rating: 3/6