‘We’ve made life difficult for ourselves’
UNDER-PRESSURE boss John Sheridan has stressed Swindon need to stop giving themselves a “mountain to climb” if they are to avoid the drop.
Portsmouth went ahead after just eight minutes as Ronan Curtis opened the scoring before Ellis Harrison’s second-half penalty made it 2-0 and condemned the visitors to a fourth defeat in five.
Sheridan’s side are in the dreaded drop zone on goal difference, but have played two more games than their closest relegation rivals. And they need to start picking up wins and fast with a horror run yielding a paltry eight points from a possible 42 since the start of December.
“We’re climbing a mountain every time we go out on the pitch by conceding poor goals early on in games,” slammed Sheridan.
“We’ve made life very difficult for ourselves with the start we gave them. We keep getting punished for the mistakes we make, and a lot of the time we end up chasing the game.
“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. There’s a bit of pride there with the second-half performance, but we should be going in 0-0 still in the game.”
The goal-shy Robins once again failed to find the back of the net. They have scored just one goal in their last 501 minutes of football.
Promotion-chasing Pompey started with some urgency and pegged the visitors into their own third. And unmarked Curtis made the Robins pay in the eighth minute as he volleyed home Charlie Daniels’ free-kick from the left.
It could have been two but Mark Travers’ produced a great save to tip Andy Cannon’s rasping strike over the bar.
The visitors continued to soak up the pressure as Daniels fired straight at Travers from the edge of the box.
Swindon found their feet just before the break as Jack Payne won a corner before he fired well wide of the mark.
Captain Dion Conroy was in the right place at the right time to deny the hosts a second as he got in the way of Curtis’ strike.
The visitors had the first sight of goal after the restart as Payne’s long-range effort flew over.
And Sheridan’s charges were frustrated by the post on the hour as Frenchman Chris Missilou left Craig MacGillivray stranded.
But hopes of a revival were scuppered when Brentford loanee Dom Thompson fouled Callum Johnson in the box and Harrison calmly rolled the spot kick straight down the middle.
Fellow League One strugglers Northampton Town have parted company with manager Keith Curle and his assistant Colin West. The Cobblers are 23rd in the table, one place below Swindon, with just six wins from 26 matches so far. Chairman Kelvin Thomas said “a change is required”.