SWINDON Town head coach Jody Morris felt his team’s late collapse against Crewe Alexandra was down to the players not injecting any extra “life or spark” into their play.

Near the end of a turgid first half in which neither team produced anywhere near their best, Rushian Hepburn-Murphy blasted Town into the lead.

The entertainment factor threatened to rise after the restart, but Swindon failed to find another goal and were made to pay when Conor Thomas and Joel Tabiner turned the game around inside the final 10 minutes.

Although Town generated six shots on target overall, only one tested 18-year-old goalkeeper Tom Booth – who was making his first senior home start – after the break.

Morris was disappointed with his team’s attacking efforts and felt there was lack of dynamism on display.

He said: “I felt a little bit like we weren’t totally on it, especially in the first half. I felt the players were kind of waiting for things to happen rather than almost looking like they were going after it.

“Without us being anywhere near as good as we could be, we were in control and could have had a couple more goals.

“That being said, at half-time, it wasn’t one where we were coming in and talking about how well we were playing. We did look flat.

“And then in the second half, when we don’t put the game to bed and inject a little bit of life or spark into our play, we’re going to end up defending more.

“If you don’t do that, you end up giving teams opportunities which – to be fair to Crewe – they took.”

Morris admits to "all-too-familiar feeling" after Crewe defeat.

The build-up to Saturday’s fixture featured mild complaints from Morris surrounding travel arrangements, while the pitch – upon arrival – was found to be unsuitable for a passing game.

But after the highly-frustrating loss, Morris refused to accept either as a viable excuse and stated his team were simply not up to scratch.

He said: “The pitch and the travel wasn’t ideal, but I wouldn’t like to use that as an excuse. We could still have done better.

“I felt we looked lethargic and flat. Sometimes, when you get caught in a traffic jam on the coach and you end up spending three hours more when it’s unexpected, you can factor in those sort of moments a little bit more. But we knew this was coming and we adapted our preparation.

“Everyone knows it wasn’t ideal prep, but it’s no excuse for what happened. What happened in the game was nothing to do with our prep.”