SWINDON Town head coach Scott Lindsey said his players simply “did not perform” following the Robins’ 2-0 defeat away at Stevenage on Saturday.

Boro’s Jordan Roberts finished twice from close range to send Steve Evans’ men to the summit of League Two while condemning Town to a second loss in three games.

Lindsey’s men never recovered from an opening half an hour in which the hosts went a goal ahead and largely dominated the number of chances created.

MATCH REPORT: Swindon slump to defeat against League Two leaders.

Despite pre-match promises that his team would try to play their way and pass the ball around Stevenage in order to be successful, Swindon were dragged into a long-ball contest that they never looked like winning.

Analysing what went wrong for his team, the Town boss said: “I think we didn’t perform, first and foremost.

“We fell into their trap a little bit – it became end-to-end, and it suited them more than it suited us.

“We weren’t composed enough at the top end of the pitch, and our line was deep at the back. And I felt our line was deep because we weren’t so composed at the top end of the pitch.

“We worked the ball forward and got into decent areas, but we were really anxious to go and shoot from 30 and 40 yards instead of playing around the box and finding openings. That dominance and control we normally have, we never had that.”

Town’s attacking threat largely came from either right-back Remeao Hutton – in the form of crosses – or via long-range efforts.

The handful of shots from outside the box all failed to hit the target, and Hutton’s crosses were rarely attacked with much conviction.

Analysing one positive for his side, Lindsey said: “Hutton was probably our biggest attacking threat – our right-back.

“I thought he had a real go in the second half, and we tried to work him into an area where he could put crosses in which weren’t shovelled in from deep.

“We knew they have defenders who will eat that up all day long, so we wanted to work the ball into an area where it was more of a pass into the box to try and work better chances from that. But it wasn’t to be, unfortunately.”