SWINDON Town head coach Scott Lindsey was left exasperated on Saturday after watching his team go down 1-0 to Crewe Alexandra at the County Ground.

A resurgent Crewe had won both of their previous fixtures 1-0 and set themselves on the way to completing a third in succession thanks to Dan Agyei’s first-half penalty in front of the Alan McLoughlin Town End.

Unrelenting time-wasting tactics from the Alex prevented Swindon from generating much momentum in the remaining 70 minutes, but even still the hosts failed to test goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo as much as they would have liked.

Luke Jephcott struck the bar following a free-flowing move down the right with 20 minutes to play, but only a Louis Reed free-kick in added time hit the target from four late shots thereafter.

MATCH REPORT: Former Oxford striker helps Crewe see off Swindon.

Asked if he’d been involved in a more frustrating match for a long time, Lindsey replied: “No. I don’t suppose I have. It was exactly that, really frustrating.

“We’ve had all the ball; we’ve had all the chances. We did everything but put the ball in the net. We’ve hit the bar. It’s really frustrating.”

A noticeable feature of Crewe’s plan was to slow the game down and prevent Swindon playing at a pace that would have suited the home team more.

While Frazer Blake-Tracy applauded the efforts of his opposition post-match, the home fans were seething by the end as referee Andrew Kitchen failed to clamp down on the shenanigans.

Lindsey was asked if Crewe’s tactics and style of operating affected the players’ mindsets when trying to find an equaliser. He said: “No I don’t think so; we didn’t take much notice of that.

“We just carried on playing how we wanted to. We tried attacking, which I felt we did. I think from minute 25 they tried to take their time whenever the ball went out of play, which they’re going to.

They were 1-0 up away from home. But we’ve got to try and find a way of winning games like that, and we didn’t manage to do that today.”