ALEX Pritchard has admitted that he sometimes lets his enthusiasm get the better of him when it comes to dealing with referees but the Swindon Town winger stressed he doesn’t go into games looking to pick arguments with officials.

Pritchard recently served a two-match suspension, having accrued 10 yellow cards over the course of the League One campaign – several of which came as a result of dissent.

The on-loan Spurs man returned to the Town starting line-up at Port Vale on Saturday and instantly showed Swindon what they’d been missing, as he played a part in setting up goals for Nile Ranger and Nathan Byrne as well as finding the net with a sumptuous free-kick.

After the game, the Advertiser asked Pritchard about his disciplinary record and the number of bookings he’s picked up for backchat this term.

The 20-year-old said: “I think about it afterwards and I think I shouldn’t have done it but as soon as I step out onto the pitch it’s like that.

“I know I’ve sometimes got to keep my mouth shut but that’s football.

“I like the referees, I get on with the referees but obviously if you step over the mark they’re going to do their job.”

Pritchard revealed his frustration at having to miss two Town matches, having come into a fine spell of form in recent weeks, but he was delighted to be back involved in the first-team squad.

“I’ve been resting and obviously it’s not nice when you’ve got a two-game ban, especially seeing as we had the game against Peterborough,” he said. It was a great result going there and getting the 2-2 and bringing them back to the County Ground.

“I watched the game at Peterborough and the lads were outstanding.

“We’re 2-0 down and Jay Mac got sent off and to come back with 10 men it didn’t even look like we were playing with 10 men, it looked the other way around.

“(Ahead of the Port Vale game) I thought I was going to be fresh and I needed to get on the ball and create things and I think I did that.”