DEFENDER Ben Purkiss admits Swindon Town can’t keep gifting teams the advantage in games after being well beaten at home by Barnet on Saturday.

Town have fallen behind in each of their three home games so far this season, picking up just one point in the process and conceding eight goals.

On Saturday, despite starting brightly, Town were dealt a sucker-punch when they handed Barnet the lead 10 minutes in through a mix-up in the box between Chris Robertson and goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux, with Shaquile Coulthirst gratefully receiving the spoils to tap home.

Barnet did not have to work hard to double their advantage six minutes later, Olly Lancashire giving away a penalty after tugging Andre Santos to the ground.

Coulthirst went on to complete his hat-trick in the second half, with Donal McDermott also seeing red for a moment of madness, and Purkiss says the team must learn to mentally deal with set-backs and not capitulate as they did on Saturday afternoon at the County Ground.

“It was almost a case of Déjà vu really,” he said.

“Before the first goal, I felt like we looked like there was only one team that was going to win the game.

“Similarly last week, we had chances and didn’t take them.

“Their first, I wouldn’t even say it was an attack because we have gifted them a goal and then you have kind of lost the impetus and you have got to build again.

“They get a corner and we give a penalty away.

“At 2-0 down, you’re staring at a mountain to climb.

“I felt we were flat before half time. The goals took the wind out of our sails and we probably needed half-time to address what was wrong and go again.

“I felt like we came out for the second half positive, trying to switch the play, trying to get 2v1s down the sides and then a red card five minutes into the second half and you lose your impetus and the momentum and almost the game plan.

“The disappointing thing is the manner in which we conceded goals.

“You are going to make mistakes over the course of a season but you need to react to those and that’s as a group and probably sums up the game.

“We can’t keep giving teams leads. It is something we will identify and we will move into next week and address.”