SWINDON Town manager John Sheridan says he has already seen contrasting sides to his team within days of taking over.

The Town boss watched on from the dugout as his side fought back from 3-1 down to snatch a point against Shrewsbury Town in his first game in charge before Swindon wilted far too easily at home in a 3-0 defeat to Accrington Stanley on Tuesday night.

Sheridan insists he has not been surprised by the size of the task presented to him since arriving at the County Ground, but he has been disappointed by Town’s Jekyll and Hyde performances in such a short space of time.

When asked what he has made of Town’s start under his leadership, Sheridan struggled to explain why his team started so brightly before settling into old habits in midweek.

He said: “If I’m going by the two games I’ve seen so far, I’ve seen two different sides to the team and I’ve only been here four or five days.

“On Saturday, I was very pleased with the way we played, despite conceding the two goals, I was very pleased with the character and the desire to get something from the game – I saw a lot of good things.

“On Tuesday, the goals we gave away were absolute gifts.

“We never really turned Accrington, everything was in front of them, people were doing the same things.

“We need to do different things against different opposition.”

Sheridan went on to answer a question about Tommy Wright’s previous statement a few weeks ago regarding a lack of leaders in the Town squad.

The Swindon boss suggested his colleague may be right about the club lacking leaders after the best player in his opinion on Tuesday was 20-year-old Matt Smith while senior players, such as Anthony Grant and Jonathan Grounds, struggled badly.

Sheridan said: “Tommy knows the players better than me, but you need leaders on the pitch, of course you do. Any team, any successful team needs leaders.

“You had a good team last year and you got a promotion, but you were playing in League Two.

“And I know in Eoin Doyle, Jerry Yates and Keshi Anderson, and because of the way you played, you knew you had players who could score goals and you would get away with the mistakes you made last year.

“You’ve made a step up this year, so you’ll get punished, and it’s harder to break teams down.”