BELEAGURED Swindon Town head coach Luke Williams accused his team of failing to learn from former woes as they slipped to defeat at Port Vale this afternoon.

Town’s hopes of escaping the League One relegation zone suffered an almighty body blow as they were bested 3-2 at Vale Park, ending the afternoon with 10 men after Bradley Barry’s late red card.

Just like when Williams’ side lost 2-1 at Northampton Town on February 14, Swindon conceded almost immediately after scoring – this time, Nicky Ajose seeing his effort quickly cancelled out by Chris Eagles – and the County Ground chief believes that unwanted habit cost his troops dear in Staffordshire.

“The same as the Northampton game; we concede immediately after scoring,” said Williams, who also saw Town fall 2-1 behind early in the second period when a Kiko free-kick caught out their back line and allowed JJ Hooper to notch.

“It’s hard to know why we allowed that to happen and then, too many people have switched off for the free-kick, and then we’re chasing the game on this pitch.

“We’re chasing the game and then it becomes more physical, and there’s more space at the back – it’s too difficult for us to cope.

“If we can learn immediately from every mistakes, we’re not where we are but we’re struggling to learn, even though we know the answer.

“We put it right and then it goes wrong again, and we put it right again and it goes wrong again too many times.

“It’s the same team that looked very, very good away from home (in a 3-1 win at Coventry City on February 25), and then very good after going 1-0 down to Gillingham (on February 28).

“Today, (we saw) a different reaction.

“I think, at this moment, some of the quality is not there in terms of the all-round player.

“There’s plenty of quality in there but to be a complete player, it’s (about) more than parts of a game – it’s everything.”

Williams was also perturbed to see his side fail to capitalise on a host of scoring opportunities during the opening stages of Saturday’s encounter.

He added: “The game was over at half-time if we’d scored those chances.”