JAY McEveley stressed that the players are as fed up with Swindon Town’s away form as the fans after the Robins were beaten 2-0 at Gillingham on Saturday.

McEveley, who featured on a matchday for the first time since the trip to Bradford City on December 29 after recovering from a knee injury, spoke openly and honestly about the mentality of the Town squad after their latest defeat on the road.

The full-back highlighted how individuals are not learning from their mistakes and, as long as that lasts, Swindon’s pursuit of a play-off place will be fundamentally flawed.

“We’re disappointed because yet again it’s a sloppy goal – a ball into the box and a free header “It can’t happen.

“It just puts us on the back foot,” he said.

“I thought in the last 10 minutes of the first half we got a foothold in the game and we started to move the ball around and created chances.

“In the second half we came out and were on top.

“When you’re on top you’ve got to put your chances away and we didn’t.

“We conceded another one because we were pushing for the equaliser.

“We’ve just given ourselves another mountain to climb with stupid, stupid, sloppy goals too many times now.

“We just keep seeming to be saying the same things every week and I think there are a lot of people getting sick and tired of it – not just the fans, ourselves as well.

“I don’t know what can be done about it but we’re not happy at all and personally I’m not happy at all either.

“People do get digged out – it’s not just about going in there and saying ‘oh well, let your man run, it’s okay’.

“People do get digged out but people just don’t learn from their mistakes.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do, it’s very disappointing.

“We need to get back to winning ways.

“It’s hard.

“There are a lot of young lads in the team but they’ve experienced the highs, the lows, everything football is going to throw at them this season.

“I’m sure they know how to figure situations out for themselves now.”

Despite the nature of the loss, McEveley was pleased to be back involved in competitive action after making a speedy recovery from his knee problem.

“It’s nice to be back sooner than expected,” he said.

“When I had the injury I thought it was worse than it was.

“It has settled down quite quickly and I’ve kept myself ticking over so I’ve been able to come back and play 90 minutes.”