SWINDON Town manager John Sheridan expressed his frustration at a game of two halves after Swindon blew a 2-0 lead to go down 4-2 away at Crewe Alexandra on Tuesday night.

In an even first-half, Town went ahead through an Anthony Grant volley before Tyler Smith got on the end of Diallang Jaiyesimi’s goal-bound effort to extend the visitors’ lead.

But Daniel Powell pounced on a mistake two minutes later to halve the hosts’ deficit before second-half goals from Perry Ng, Tom Lowery and Owen Dale consigned Sheridan’s men to a ninth loss of the campaign.

After the game, the Town boss was left perplexed at how his side managed to throw such a dominate position away as they fell to 18th in the League One table following a poor night at Gresty Road.

Sheridan said: “If I’m going by how the game went, I thought in the first half, we were excellent.

“To get a two-goal start, I thought the game plan was very good and the players played to it as well, so I was very pleased.

“The goal they get just before half-time was a big setback for us because it gives them a bit of a lifeline, going in 2-1 and thinking they have a chance.

“They’re a good team, they’re good at home, and their passing and movement is really good. But I thought we coped with them really well and we scored two good goals.”

Despite leading by a goal at half-time, Town emerged from the break a shadow of their former selves as Crewe took control early on.

David Artell’s men were capable of passing their way through Town as well as simply running away from struggling defenders in the second 45, as the goals came all too frequently for Sheridan’s liking.

The Swindon manager said his players failed to take enough responsibility throughout the second half, and not enough of them wanted to stand up and be counted.

He said: “If I’m going by the second half and the manner of the goals, players in today’s game have got to demand more from each other.

“If you’re at the game, you can hear me shouting because I’m seeing things on the pitch that we should be doing better, and I’m quite vocal in expressing myself.

“But players have got to see things, they’ve got to push each other, and they’ve got to be more demanding of each other.

“There was a great opportunity to go on and win that game, and that’s the biggest downer, for me.”