Ian Holloway delighted with Swindon progress after holding Crewe to draw

Ian Holloway was delighted with the progress from his Swindon side after they lifted the gloom by holding high-flyers Crewe to a goalless draw at a fog-hit Country Ground.

The game was halted after three minutes before restarting at 4pm despite no noticeable improvement in visibility.

And Holloway ended up singing the praises of his team who were the better side in the contest.

He said: “Everybody thinks we’re a pushover, but we’re not. But we’ve got to keep moving, as there is still a long way to go.

“And if you think about where they are and where we are in the table, that’s a massive positive for me.”

The draw gave the Robins their first league clean sheet for 99 days.

Holloway said: “That’s the first clean sheet I’ve got and we thoroughly deserved it and played really, really well.

“We looked really solid. And the second half, the longer the game went on, the more we grew.”

Alex keeper Filip Marschall did well to keep out a screamer from Town’s Nnamdi Ofoborh and the rebound fell to Aaron Drinan, who dragged his effort wide.

Town captain Ollie Clarke then smashed against the post from outside the box before fellow midfielder Gavin Kilkenny miscued amid the murk.

Harry Smith looked certain to turn in Drinan’s low cross but somehow did not connect.

Half time saw visibility vastly improved and the Robins’ new loan signing Tom Nichols had the perfect opportunity to grab a debut goal after being teed up by Ofoborh on the edge of the box but he shot tamely at the keeper.

Crewe’s Chris Long looked odds-on to nick a winner when he was sent through on goal but Jack Bycroft stood firm giving Swindon a well-deserved point.

Crewe boss Lee Bell praised ref Lee Swabey for allowing the game to go ahead.

He said: “The referee has been excellent in terms of his decision making and what he’s done, he gave the game every chance.

“And because of that, we’ve had a game of football.

“So I think the decision making, what they’ve done, they’ve been brilliant.

“The staff here have been excellent, and fed and kept us warm this morning when we were around so that I can’t complain at anything that anyone’s done.

“I was amazed at how good the pitch was with the frost when I got here this morning.”

But Bell was frustrated his promotion chasers had flopped against strugglers Swindon.

He said: “We were lucky to escape with a point on chances created, we were under par, we underperformed as a collective and as individuals, and then we got a couple of moments in the game.

“I just thought it’d be down to a bit of a moment from us, rather than general good play, and we’ve got a couple of moments but did not have our shooting boots on.

“They showed more energy. You can’t underestimate them. They’ve got a good team.

“We’ll be looking at our performance, we didn’t remotely look like doing anything, we’ve got to perform better away from home.”