SWINDON Town U18s manager Alan McLoughlin was pleased to see his side address their own mistakes as they came from two goals down to beat Exeter City 3-2 on Saturday.

Having won their first two games in the Youth Alliance South West League, that perfect start looked under threat as they found themselves two goals in arrears at half-time in Devon.

However, McLoughlin did not change anything tactically but asked for more application from his side in the second period.

The additions of Wilf White and Teo Atick played a key role in the revival as both got themselves on the scoresheet before Sol Pryce cut in from the right and drilled his shot from the outside of the box into the top corner to maintain Town’s perfect record at the top of the league.

“After a very poor first-half performance, I take from it that the boys have learnt their lesson,” said McLoughlin.

“You can’t feel sorry for yourself because you have had to travel on the mini-bus to Exeter and think that I am going to be content with the boys giving Exeter every opportunity to put the game out of sight before half-time.

“We worked on the game plan of what Exeter’s strengths would be and we didn’t execute how we were supposed to defend against it and ultimately paid the price by conceding two goals.

“At half time, I didn’t speak about tactics, I only told them that they would be playing the same formation and I wanted a little bit more effort, desire and energy and demanded that every single one of them upped their game by another 25 or 30 per cent.

“If they did that, I felt they still had a way back into the game.

“I made some substitutions on 60 minutes and that was a turning point. Teo Atick came on with Wilf White and changed the game and to be fair, we were absolutely fantastic in the second half from the first whistle.

“The players got their rewards in the end and it was no more than they deserved.

“My full-time team talk was, as many managers up and down the country, ‘why couldn’t you start as robustly and as full of energy’ and that’s what they did in the end.

“It’s just a mentality thing.”

Swindon next host Newport County at Stanley Park this Saturday.