Not much you can say about this one for the 324 travelling Southend supporters in the 6,852 crowd, as former Robins boss Paul Sturrock must have wished he was anywhere but the County Ground Saturday afternoon.
The Shrimpers starting eleven was as expected but goals by goals from Jonathan Smith and Mehdi Kerrouche were more than enough for the hosts.
Swindon were the better team throughout, though the Essex boys kept it under control until the second goal, and after only four minutes Matt Ritchie's 20 yard strike straight at Southend keeper Glenn Morris was a warning for the Blues faithful.
The ever-dangerous Ritchie then headed against the top of the bar from only six yards out, this was not looking good.
Son of Luggy Blair did have a go after a Mohsni knock down, and followed this up with a decent volley well saved by Swinson shot stopper Mattia Lanzano before centre-back Mark Phillips headed a Ryan Hall cross over from eight yards out.
Still, nothing on target and the Robins again showed the away side how to do it when Kerrouche shot from the edge of the area and at least called Morris into action, but he saved easily.
Then a moment of drama, when Lanzano showed his Italian side, charging outside the area and receiving a yellow card for handling a Sturrock effort, the free-kick by Hall seeing Prosser head over the bar.
The S24-paler-to-watch, ex-Shrimper Alan McCormack was playing at centre-half for most of the game after Oliver Risser was injured, but he was given time to go forward and shoot over from 30 yards, we saw a lot of that in his last season at Roots Hall!
The Wiltshire side did finally breakthrough though, when Swindon substitiute Smith let fly from 25 yards out to see the ball smash into the top right hand corner.
A lead that could have been lost soon after as Ryan Leonard headed against the crossbar from close range from yet another Hall cross, a wasted opportunity, obviously too close for the former Plymouth youth!
Just before the break Shrimper skipper Chris Barker sliced the ball close to his own net but he and his team were happy to hear the whistle that gave them some breathing space as Harry Crawford replacing a struggling Mohsni up front.
However, the interval cup of tea and Luggy chat did not do the trick!
First, Kerrouche felt he had decent grounds for a spot-kick that were turned down, but on 48 minutes he had made it 2-0!
Simon Ferry had the freedom of Swindon to move into the 12-yard box penalty area before finding Kerrouche who finished with aplomb.
And that was about that, Sturrock tried to liven things up as Peter Gilbert and Jean Paul Kalala came on for Prosser and Leonard, but it didn't work!
The Robins kept the ball well for the rest of the half, Morris did OK with a long range strike by last week's double goal-scorer Alan Connell, yet Swindon knew they had enough to hold off a weak Shrimpers response as they marked the one offensive weapon Southend held, wideboy Ryan Hall, very quiet indeed.
Move on from this one and hope there's plenty of improvement for the visit of Gillingham Tuesday evening,
Southend United player markings: Morris 6, Clohessy 5, Phillips 6, Barker 6, Prosser 4 (Gilbert - 5), Leonard 5 (Kalala 59 - 5), Grant 6, Ferdinand 5, Hall 6, Mohsni 5, (Crawford h-t - 5), Sturrock 5.
Referee: Mr. D. Mohareb - 7.