“THERE were too many challenges lost, there were too many headers lost, there were too many tackles lost, too many balls that didn’t go where we’d like them to and it accumulates.”

Danny Wilson was scathing in his analysis of Town’s woeful home capitulation to Hartlepool United in Saturday’s League One clash at the County Ground.

The Robins chief was a frustrated onlooker as his side failed to carry out many of the game’s basics, letting in two careless first-half goals as they surrendered their 11-game unbeaten streak in the league.

“For large parts of the game we were second best,” admitted Wilson.

“It’s not going to be easy and you have to do the leg work and we didn’t do the leg work today.

“The work ethic wasn’t anywhere near as high as you need to win a football game.

“We wanted to start the game as we started last week but we never got out of the blocks.

“For some unknown reason we had the game plan but it went completely out of our heads and we got punished for that.”

The tone was set early on when Adam Boyd was afforded too much time and space on the left to deliver a floated cross, which James Brown nodded past David Lucas with just three minutes on the clock.

Ben Hutchinson and Tope Obadeyi both had half-chances to level the scoreline in the first period but neither were able to show the proficiency in front of goal which Town still urgently require.

And, after Andy Monkhouse continued his tradition of scoring against his former club, slotting underneath Lucas from 12 yards on the half hour mark, the home side appeared deflated.

Despite some tidy passing football from the Town midfield and occasional glimpses of the pace and trickery of Obadeyi and Anthony McNamee on the flanks, the Robins never looked like finding an end product.

Without Jonathan Douglas to sit in front of the back four, Town's midfield offered too much room for their opponents to work in, whilst the visitors dominated in the air.

Despite second half chances for Lee Peacock, Billy Paynter and Obadeyi, all of whom saw their efforts saved by Scott Flinders in the Hartlepool goal, the visitors controlled the game with aplomb.

The attacking triumvirate of Brown, Boyd and Denis Behan, along with Monkhouse, exposed Town’s defensive deficiencies all too easily, whilst Swindon’s impotency in the final third made an alarming return.

That Peacock saw his goal-bound shot accidentally blocked by Obadeyi on the line summed the afternoon up from a Town perspective.

A chorus of displeasure from the County Ground crowd greeted the final whistle, leaving Wilson with much to think about ahead of next weekend's daunting trip to Norwich City.