Manchester City do not take these assignments lightly, regardless of the trying circumstances and, perhaps unsurprisingly, almost half a billion pounds’ worth of talent swatted aside a spirited Swindon Town team that are 72 places below them in the league pyramid and predominantly made up of freebies. Ultimately City punished Swindon’s attempts to play the runaway Premier League leaders at their own game as strikes by Bernardo Silva, Gabriel Jesus, Ilkay Gündogan and Cole Palmer earned a victory that saw them ease into the FA Cup fourth round. Regardless of defeat, Swindon supporters will always cherish the moment Harry McKirdy streamed through on goal, amid the sound of fans collectively rising from their seats, and drilled the ball into the City net before a jam-packed Town End.
Whatever the score, Swindon supporters were determined to savour the occasion after a miserable couple of years following a team that were unceremoniously relegated to the fourth tier last season. They gleefully celebrated when the goalkeeper Lewis Ward dived low to his right to save Jesus’s second-half penalty but for Swindon’s head coach, Ben Garner, attention now turns to what he was adamant was a bigger game: Tuesday’s trip to Mansfield. “The league is our bread and butter and we will push on with optimism for the rest of the season,” he said. “It was a fantastic night for the club. It was about our supporters, who have been through a tough time.”
