SWINDON ground out a narrow 5-0 victory over rivals Oxford in terrible conditions.

The home side won the toss and decided to play into the strong wind and as expected spent the majority of the first period camped in their own half.

Despite dominating territory, the visitors could not find a way to break down the home side's defence. Two penalty kicks were missed to leave the game deadlocked at 0-0 at half time.

With the wind at their backs the home side were expecting to dominate the second half, but it was not to be.

Swindon used the wind well to pin the visitors within their own 22m line but could not find a way to turn the pressure into points. Hooker Scott Chapman, who was undertaking kicking duties for the day, missed a penalty kick and the game looked as if it could end in a disappointing draw.

However, the deadlock was broken in the 70th minute.

From a scrum just within the Oxford half the ball was shipped out to the Swindon backs.

With nothing on, skipper Paul Wakefield hoisted a cross-field kick for his winger and although he couldn't gather it, tackled the defender and took man and ball over the try line to leave a 5 metre scrum with a Swindon put in.

A pushover was attempted, but when that was halted the ball was picked up and a driving maul was set up.

This time the defence could not prevent them powering their way over the line with prop Steve Davis getting the touchdown. The conversion was missed.

With only a matter of minutes remaining the away side threw everything at Swindon in an attempt to get a result from the game.

Only some desperate defending in the closing moments of the game saw the home side retain their slender lead and ensured that the derby day victory was theirs.

Swindon return to league action in the New Year.

They are away at Thatcham on January 10.

A number of local friendlies against Swindon College and Wootton Bassett are scheduled over the Christmas period on December 27 and January 3 respectively.