SWINDON Town manager John Sheridan was at a loss to explain why his team is so inconsistent after the Robins lost 1-0 to Shrewsbury Town on Saturday.

Victory would have seen Swindon secure consecutive victories for the first time all season, but Sheridan’s men barely looked capable of string wins together as Shrewsbury controlled proceedings at the County Ground.

Harrison Chapman’s supremely-executed volley from 25 yards settled the tie for Steve Cotterill’s men while Swindon fell back into the League One relegation zone just days after escaping it courtesy of success over Wigan Athletic.

Sheridan said he barely recognised some of his players on Saturday after a few of them performed admirably on Tuesday night.

Asked if the Town boss could put his finger on why his team is so inconsistent, he said: “No, not really. I couldn’t put my finger on it.

“Not that I want to go on about them too much and make excuses, but injuries have harmed us.

“But players come in, they’re professionals and they should be good enough to go out and perform – injuries haven’t helped us though.

“We haven’t had the consistency this season, and that’s why we are where we are.

“We just don’t have the consistency in our game to go out there and win two, three or four games on the spin. We’ve lacked it all season.”

Another defeat on Saturday stretched Town’s dismal run to just two wins in 13 games following a 2-1 derby success over Oxford United in November.

Sheridan maintained his confidence in his side’s ability to stay up had not changed after one result and still firmly believes Town are capable of going to Fratton Park on Tuesday night and winning.

He said: “I’m not going to beat myself up. I was speaking to you on Tuesday and everyone was smiling and laughing because we’d won a game.

“We’ve lost a game, so I’m not going to beat myself up so much to think we’re relegated already. I’m going to think we’re going to win at Portsmouth, I’m going to think we’re going to win at Bristol Rovers.

“That’s my mentality and that’s the way I’ve got to think – while I’m in charge, that’s the way I’m going to go.

“The endeavour was there in the second half – we’ve just got to stick together, as I’ve said many times, and we’ve got to finish as high as we can in that group of seven or eight teams at the bottom. We’re well capable of doing it.”