Graham Turner's thoughts after the defeat to Swindon Town
By Matt Johnson
After suffering a second home defeat in three at the Greenhous Meadow at the hands of Swindon, Graham Turner was disappointed but admitted his side weren’t good enough on the day to win the game.
A first goal in nearly a year from Robins midfielder Simon Ferry 12 minutes from time was enough for the visitors to take all three points back to The County Ground in what was a largely uneventful contest.
“If I’m perfectly honest, I’m not sure that we deserved to get a point,” said Turner. “I don’t think we played anywhere near our capabilities. We’ve come up against a side the worked hard against us but we’re better than we’ve shown today – that’s the mystery.
“There were times when we had time on the ball and we’ve made silly errors. We passed the ball without the precision that we look for, particularly in the first half. We broke out quite well but generally we were quite poor with the ball.”
A major worry for Turner was the lack of chances his side managed to create, and the sustained pressure the visitors had over his side during the second half – worries that were evident in the 1-0 reverse to Scunthorpe just two weeks ago.
“We only had a couple of shooting chances, but we didn’t concede many chances either,” added Turner. “There was just the daft one right before half-time, but having got away with that, we got penned back for the first 15-20 minutes of the second half.
“I just thought we had weathered the storm and right prior to the goal we might have scored. The goalkeeper has spilt one going back towards his goal and another day it goes in, but we’re bitterly disappointed with the way we played.
A second home defeat of the season is a far cry from the unbeaten home record of the last campaign, but Turner is confident his side can compete in League One and is keen to restore confidence to his relatively inexperienced side.
“Home form has been terrific over the last 18 months, but we’ve had these results and we’ve got to pick ourselves up for the game on Tuesday.
“Confidence is a fragile thing and I think we’ve got a squad of players where a percentage of them haven’t played at this level before, so its important that we try and keep confidence high because we’ve shown so far this season that we can play football and that we’re a decent side, so we’ve got to get back to that.”