Paul Glatzel led the charge as a mightily impressive Swindon Town put Newport County to the sword 4-0 for their first win of the season.

Kabongo Tshimanga opened the scoring after just four minutes and Town never looked back in a massively improved display.

Glatzel fired home twice as George Cox wreaked havoc down the left before Joel Cotterill slammed in another before the break.

After 155 days of hurt since Town last tasted victory, they are officially off the mark this season, snapping the second-longest winless start in club history.

Injuries and suspensions forced Mark Kennedy into making four changes from the team that started at Barrow. Glatzel successfully came through the concussion protocol to start up front and George Cox got his first start along with Cotterill and Tunmise Sobowale coming back in.

For five league games, Swindon had nothing and then there was light.

A tentative start from Town with a depleted crowd watching unsure what to expect was ripped apart after four minutes. A deep free-kick fell in the box and Tshimanga did what he was signed to do, take charge. He took a touch, swivelled, and buried his finish into the bottom corner. From the lowest of doldrums, there was lift-off.

The noise, the energy, and the dynamism all went up tenfold instantly. Newport had started the game with more possession but as they pondered at the back, Town attacked. Danny Butterworth and Tshimanga exchanged passes before a low effort went wide and then fresh off his brace for Wales Under-21s, Joel Cotterill stood up.

First, he won the ball in midfield and charged away to fire narrowly wide and then as Newport failed to deal with a long throw, he hit a snapshot through a crowd of bodies that again had Nick Townsend scrambling.

Newport had a sight in the 17th minute as a lovely ball played Aaron Wildig clean through but Sobowale galloped back to make a huge block. It looked even bigger seconds later as Swindon went straight up the other end and Cox put in a fabulous cross that Glatzel rose like a dolphin out of the ocean to power into the net.

It was scarcely believable what was going on as in the 21st minute another deep free kick was kept alive at the back post by Will Wright and Glatzel was there again to get it over the line. This made him officially become more iconic than Terry Butcher as a player wearing a head bandage.

So palpable was the disbelief at how well Swindon were playing and how stark the difference was to last week that the Sky Sports + feed went down at 3-0. Yes, this was real.

The fans who had been accused of being in a library by the Newport end before the first goal felt the kind of comfort you rarely feel watching Town. Just half an hour in they were ole-ing passes, although this foolhardiness did not last long as Newport nearly won the ball off Sobowale.

Glatzel nearly had a first-half hat-trick that would have satisfied his German roots as he flicked a backheel from a Jeff King cross that went wide of the far post and a last-ditch tackle denied him a clear shot from Cotterill’s cutback.

With the board about to go up for first-half stoppages Cox raced up the left again and played a ball in for Glatzel and he was cruelly denied a third by a magnificent Townsend save. Only that saw the ball come out for Cotterill to smash in a fourth.

It was an early kick-off and the entire crowd felt like they were dreaming, other than the Newport fans, who wished they had just stayed in bed.

Glatzel would have had only a minor gripe with the way his afternoon was going and that was he couldn’t quite manage a third. Eight minutes into the second half Butterworth barrelled down the line and sent in a low ball to him. He took a touch but couldn’t quite squeeze it beyond Townsend.

But the second half largely saw the easing off treatment you normally get in one-sided games. Kennedy was able to break out the cotton wool and bring Cox off to save him as he works on acquiring his sea legs and Nnamdi Ofoborh was handed half an hour as well.

Newport passed the ball around but you could tell their hearts were not in it and they could see the ship sailing off.

But even the game being a non-event after Cotterill’s strike could not dampen a joyous lunchtime in Swindon.

Last season, victory over Newport around this time marked the spiritual end of that Michael Flynn summer, could it mark the true start of Kennedy’s side or will it be just a mirage in the early Autumn sunshine?

STFC starting XI: Bycroft, Sobowale, Wright, Cotterill, Glatzel, King, Kilkenny, Freckleton, Tshimanga, Butterworth, Cox.

STFC substitutes: Barden, Ofoborh, McGurk, Cain, Drinan, Minturn,

NCFC starting XI: Townsend, Driscoll-Glennon, Baker, Morris, Baker-Richardson, Greaves, Antwi, K. Evans, Wildig, C. Evans, Mawene.

NCFC substitutes: Kamwa, Carney, Seberry, Rai, Hudlin, Sanca, Jephcott.

Attendance: 6,857 (866 away).