SWINDON Town midfielder Jonny Williams believes his team needs to be more courageous when going behind in future games following a 3-0 defeat to Harrogate Town on Saturday.

Swindon started brightly in their season opener before the Robins’ performance rapidly declined as the host’s goal tally increased.

Alex Pattison showed excellent technique to volley home the first goal of the afternoon in the 43rd minute, and Matty Daly thundered a powerful strike into the top-right corner shortly after half-time.

Once Ben Gladwin missed a penalty midway through the second period, it quickly became apparent that it would not be Swindon’s day, and Jack Muldoon added insult to injury with 17 minutes remaining.

While admitting the sheer quality of Harrogate’s first two goals, Williams was unhappy at Swindon’s lack of fight after going behind.

Analysing the loss from a player’s point of view, the Welsh international said: “It’s two worldies that have cost us.

“On another day, they go wide, and we score a scrappy goal to go 1-0 up. From there, we probably go 2-0 and 3-0 up.

“But we need to work on - when we go a goal down - being brave enough to take it to the opposition and get back in the game.

“On another day, (Ben Gladwin) scores a penalty and we put pressure on them which might see us get something from the game.

“Instead, we missed, and they went down the other end to make it 3-0 – it was too easy.”

Williams was one of seven Town players to be involved at the weekend and also against Port Vale as last season came to a painful end in the play-offs.

The talented midfielder admitted Scott Lindsey’s men were hoping to kick off the new term with a win fuelled by the stinging emotion from the penalty shoot-out defeat at Vale Park.

But Williams is confident the 2022-23 campaign can get back on track with a victory over Salford City at the County Ground on Saturday.

He said: “It is frustrating, very frustrating, because we were all looking forward to the new season.

“We all had that sense of frustration and that sense of knowing how close we came in the penalty shoot-out (against Port Vale). We wanted to use that to drive ourselves one step better this season.

“We need to forget about this defeat very quickly and move on because we haven’t got time to feel sorry for ourselves.

“The games come thick and fast, as we know, so we need to make sure we’re miles better against Salford on Saturday.”