Graham Turner's thoughts after the 2-0 defeat at Swindon
Town travelled to Swindon in a good run of form looking to try and get a result against a Swindon side whose recent home form had been frightening.
In the first half Town dug in against a lively Swindon side, Weale made a couple of good saves but other than that the visitors gave a good account of themselves. In the second half an early penalty swiftly followed by a second goal for Swindon made things a lot tougher for Town.
After the game Graham Turner spoke to the press to give his thoughts on the afternoons game:”I thought were quite poor with the ball today and that was our downfall as we are better than that.
“We are a better team than we've shown today and you can't just keep giving the ball back to a team like Swindon as they'll just come back at you.
“To be fair to Swindon they closed us down all game and that put us on edge and we kept giving the ball back to them.
“There is bitter disappointment in the dressing room about their penalty, Jonah says that they both turned to go for the ball and Andy Williams slipped and got hold of him. That decision settles them down right after half-time and then gives us problems.
“In the second half they put a string of attacks where we had to be at our best to keep them at bay.”
The penalty minutes into the second half was the turning point in the game when Darren Jones was adjudged to have pushed Andy Williams in the penalty area. From the pressbox it looked a harsh decision but from the touchline it was hard for the manager to see clearly:”It's difficult to see from the dugout but when you looked at the referee he didn't give many decisions for fouls and I was amazed when he gave the penalty.”
Minutes after the penalty Swindon were 2-0 up with a nicely worked goal, but from the manager point of view it was a goal that Town could have done better with:”It was very disappointing as we had time to clear our lines and then had time to make sure we marked the second ball and clear the header back across.
“They were fairly quick goals after the restart and that then knocks the stuffing our of us.”
Town were dealt a blow at the break with Jermaine Grandison unable to continue due to his hip problem. Yado Mambo came in and did OK and GT confirmed that Jermaine will be seeing a specialist on Monday:”Jermaine has been playing well for us so it's always going to be a lose to loose someone like him.
“I thought Yads did OK for his first 45minutes for us but your always going to miss someone like Jermaine.
“You could see two or three times in the first half that Jermaine was struggling a little bit.
“It's a hip problem and he will see a Harley Street specialist on Monday, there is a bit of bone impingement and we hope that it is not the worse case scenario and it's a case where we can manage the injury and he'll be ok.”
Town had the chance to grab a goal back after Jon Taylor was taken out in the Swindon penalty box. Matt Richards who is normally clinical from the penalty spot stepped up but Foderingham guessed correctly to make the save. GT was asked if that summed up Town's attacking performance over the 90 minutes:”Matt has been in good form from the penalty spot for us but you could say the miss summed up our attacking display today.
“We know we can pass the ball well and play better than we did today but you need to get hold of the ball and move it quickly when a side like Swindon are pressing and closing you down that quickly.
“What happened today is that we didn't work hard enough and get into the right positions and retain the ball.”
The result brings to end Town's recent unbeaten run but the challenge from GT is start the next unbeaten run with next week's home game against Bury:”Today is a defeat and defeats are hard to take no matter what your recent form has been like.
“What we have to do now is put the work in over the week to put things right in time for the Bury game.”