Accrington Stanley wanted to target Swindon Town from dead ball situations during their 2-2 draw in League Two.

Town needed the magic of Danny Butterworth to get something at The Wham Stadium after Sonny Aljofree and Farrend Rawson had both scored to give Accrington the lead following Harry Smith’s opener.

Accrington managed to score both of their goals from set pieces with Aljofree and Rawson turning home in the first half, defending from dead balls has been an issue for Swindon in recent weeks.

 

 

Town have now conceded a league-high nine goals from those situations this campaign, joint with Morecambe and have allowed 63 shots from opposition set pieces during the first 15 games of the season.

Speaking to BBC Lancashire after the game, Rawson said that was something the home side had identified as something which they hoped to exploit before the game.

He said: “The quality [of delivery] was unbelievable, Donald Love on one side put some unbelievable balls in and then Ben Woods on the other does exactly the same.

“Ged [Brannan] and the gaffer [John Doolan] pointed out that that was a weakness of theirs and we have to take full advantage and clearly we did that.”

Doolan said after the match that Stanley should have been well clear before Butterworth showcased his talent to share the spoils.

He said: “I couldn’t have asked for any more from the lads, my philosophy is that if you can’t win the game then don’t lose it and a couple of months ago we might have gone under.

“But the game should have been out of sight in the first half, to be honest, with all the chances that we had and all of the shots that we had – the stats will probably tell you that.

“Our forward line with Tyler [Walton], Josh [Woods], and Dara [Costelloe] – they all had chances to put the game to bed and we didn’t.

“We went in with the lead, I knew they were going to make changes as they are a big club with some really good players.

“We started the second half well and again, chance after chance and we don’t take the chances.

“Then they grow, we gave them a bit of life with errors by not connecting with headers or not clearing our lines and that was asking more questions and we ended up going deeper and deeper.”