SWINDON Town “threw away” three points against Burton Albion on Monday, according to manager John Sheridan.

After going a goal down midway through the first half at the Pirelli Stadium, Town hauled themselves level courtesy of Jack Payne’s quality strike 10 minutes later.

But despite dominating the majority of the second 45, the visitors saw at least a point slip through their fingers when Burton captain John Brayford headed home a free-kick inside the final 10 minutes.

Sheridan was left frustrated after his team once again failed to heed his advice in training on the threats of the opposition.

He said: “I’m hugely disappointed because it was a massive opportunity to take three points.

“I’m disappointed after going a goal down again from something that we’ve worked on and instilled into the players.

“Their long balls or set plays are a threat, and they get the ball forward quickly. It’s ugly and it’s hard to play against, but we knew what they were going to throw at us.

“The first goal has come from that where we should deal with it a lot better. We got ourselves back in the game with Payne’s goal.

“But again, I’m talking about us getting beat by two goals where it’s just about us having a bit of discipline, knowing what our job description is and what we’re doing from set plays, and it’s cost us again. It’s a massive three points that we’ve thrown away, I do truly believe that.”

The statistics at the end of the game suggested a draw would have been the fairest result – with 13 shots a piece, and three shots on target to four in favour of Swindon.

But the 60 per cent possession that Sheridan’s men had often failed to deliver what had been expected, and in the end Town were punished.

Sheridan called Town’s defending for both goals they conceded “diabolical”, but admitted his team played well aside from that.

He said: “I felt we passed the ball, we took care of the ball and moved it quickly, we made things look simple.

“We knew what they were going to do, so we told the players not to give cheap throw-ins away because they’ve got long throws that are like free-kicks.

“Set players, we knew we’re going to have to defend well – which we did, other than the two goals.

“The two goals are diabolical really – they’re goals we should be dealing with a lot, lot better. Apart from the two goals, I thought we played really well.”