Under-fire Swindon boss on the big mistake his side made against Portsmouth

The under-fire Robins boss was a frustrated figure after his struggling side fell to a 2-0 loss at a freezing Fratton Park last night.

Pompey made the breakthrough in the eighth minute as Ronan Curtis volleyed home Charlie Daniels’ free-kick before Ellis Harrison converted a second-half penalty.

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Sheridan was annoyed that his team gave the home side the opportunity to utilise their threat from set-pieces which is well established.

He told the Swindon Advertiser: ‘We’ve made life very difficult for ourselves with the start we gave them.

‘We told the players how good they are at getting balls in the box, so to not give cheap free-kicks away, and we give one away after 10 minutes which they score from. We know they’re a threat on their own patch.

‘I can take good things from the game, but we haven’t scored again, and we’ve given a penalty and a free-kick away.

‘Even the second goal, we’re just getting into the game and we’re unlucky not to score ourselves.

‘We hit the post, and just as we’re getting a foot hold in the game, we go and give a very cheap penalty away to make life so very difficult for ourselves.’

Swindon find themselves entrenched in the League One relegation dogfight after their latest defeat made it four losses in five, as they battle losses off the pitch incurred by the coronavirus pandemic.

Sheridan took solace from his side rallying in the second half but knows the mistakes his side made will lead to an inevitable outcome this season.

He added: ‘We can’t get off to the starts we are – I told them again after the game, you’ve got to demand from each other. You can’t let little things go and little things happen in games.

‘We’re climbing a mountain every time we go out on the pitch by conceding poor goals early on in games.

‘There’s a bit of pride there with the second-half performance, but we should be going in 0-0 still in the game.

‘We keep getting punished for the mistakes we make, and a lot of the time we end up chasing the game.’

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