SWINDON Town head coach Ben Garner admitted he was “over the moon” after watching his team score an injury-time penalty to beat Bradford City 2-1 on Saturday.

Town were shell-shocked early on at the Utilita and ended up conceding after Gareth Evans volleyed the Bantams in front during the 17th minute.

Harry McKirdy skilfully flicked home Swindon’s equaliser three minutes later, before ex-Bantams midfielder Jack Payne slotted a 95th-minute penalty following a foul on Ellis Iandolo by goalkeeper Alex Bass.

Asked if it was one of Town’s most emotional wins, Garner said: “Yeah, I think so.

“It’s something we’ve spoken about a little bit. We weren’t as good with the ball as what we normally are, but we showed grit, we showed character, and we found a way to win the game which you need to do.

“That was the first of five games in a short space of time, and you’ve got to be able to grind points out sometimes and show desire to win. So I’m absolutely over the moon with that three points.”

Town’s afternoon got off to a poor start when named left-back Joe Tomlinson suffered a groin injury in the warm-up and was replaced by Akin Odimayo.

But the stand-in enjoyed a fine game while Garner’s men consistently rolled with the punches that were thrown at them to emerge victorious.

Garner said: “We lost Joe Tomlinson in the warm-up, and that disrupted what we planned to do.

“Akin Odimayo comes into the team but then he had to come off, which makes us change shape.

“We conceded ground to their centre-backs, but I felt we could win it in midfield – we had two or three opportunities to do that.

“We should have done a little bit better in those scenarios, but we created some good pressure with corners and crosses. We end up getting the penalty, and Payne shows composure to put it away.”