SWINDON Town manager Richie Wellens said his team let the game slip away from them after blowing a one-goal lead away at Colchester United on Tuesday night.

Former Town men Luke Norris and Theo Robinson did the damage for the hosts as Norris nodded in an equaliser from a free-kick with 15 minutes to play before Robinson’s late brace sealed the visitors’ fate.

Despite controlling large parts of the game and wasting several chances to take all three points back to Wiltshire, Town were leading until 16 minutes to go.

Wellens’ criticised his defenders for dropping too deep in the final stages of the game and bemoaned the lack of cutting edge from his attackers as Town were left with a precarious one-goal lead.

Asked where the game slipped away from Town, Wellens said: “That’s exactly what it was – we let the game get away from us.

“It was an outstanding performance from their goalkeeper, but our finishing should have been better because we should have been three or four up.

“Then Colchester have made it land of the giants at the end and they’ve just gone long.

“They’ve gone long, and we’ve given too many free-kicks away. We’re too deep, we’re far too deep.

“When it was 1-0, Doughty goes through and he should score.

“But we let the game slip away and we took our foot off the gas.”

Though Norwich City loanee Diallang Jaiyesmi produced a largely positive performance, his manager was frustrated with the young winger afterwards for showboating when Town were ahead.

Tommy Wright was seen gesturing and shouting ‘stop it’ after one such movement by Jaiyesimi.

But Wellens’ biggest concern was with his team’s inability to deal with the long balls that he felt Colchester started to send in once substitutes Norris and Frank Nouble were sent on.

The Town manager said: “We started taking an extra touch, there were a few flicks and tricks too which is fine when you’re winning four or five nil.

“But when it’s 1-0, you can’t be doing that.

“We’ve given the ball away too often and then the last 20 minutes was really poor.

“They haven’t done that to us before – they just went long.

“And we’ve given away set plays – they’ve scored from at least two of them.

“The average distance of all three of their goals was maybe four yards, so it wasn’t good enough defensively.”