MARK Cooper thought that Swindon Town got away from their principles as they were held to a 2-2 draw by Oldham Athletic at the County Ground last night.

Jonathan Obika hit back to cancel out James Dayton’s thunderbolt in the first half before Town substitute Andy Williams’ spectacular strike was negated by Latics replacement Amari Morgan-Smith.

Cooper thought his team lost their way as they were dragged into a battle by a dogged Oldham but was still relieved to grab a share of the spoils.

“Teams are not going to come and lie down and say ‘come on Swindon, we’ll let you have the ball for 90 minutes and we’ll wait until you score’,” said Cooper.

“They’re going to come and fight and work hard and try and force us into mistakes, which is what Oldham did. We have to be braver with the ball and try and work it out to make sure that we can find the right path.

“We didn’t play really with any fluency. We got dragged into playing fight football and kicking the ball long and we’re not set up for that.

“We’re not set up to fight and scrap, because other teams do that better than us. We got away from our principles a little bit tonight and we saw the result of that.

“We still got a point and it keeps the points tally ticking on but we have to be an awful lot better on Saturday (at home to Sheffield United).

“I thought we looked tired but that could be down to Oldham – they worked extremely hard.

“(You’re) always vulnerable when you score a goal. But like I say, when it’s that late in the game and you’re 2-1 up, however you do it, you have to see the game out.

“That’s a lesson we have to learn. We did it on Saturday (at Bradford City), we saw the game out. We didn’t do it (last night) and that’s disappointing.

“People get tired, concentration starts to waver, and that’s when you have to concentrate even more. It’s a difficult thing to work on. That comes from within.”