SWINDON Town head coach Luke Williams has refused to point the finger of blame at Raphael Branco and instead says the whole squad should shoulder the responsibility for Tuesday night’s defeat at home to Bristol Rovers.

Defender Branco endured a nightmare 90 seconds at the County Ground as Town shipped two goals in quick succession to see a 1-0 lead collapse to a 2-1 loss as they were beaten for a third time in a row in League One.

First, the Brazilian clumsily brought down Jermaine Easter in the box, allowing Matty Taylor to level the scores for the Gas from the penalty spot in the 83rd minute.

Things went from bad to worse for Branco less than a minute later as he diverted Easter’s drilled low cross past Swindon goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux into his own net for what turned out to be the winning goal.

Town were guilty of giving up possession far too cheaply for both of Rovers’ goals, with the second coming straight after the home side had kicked off again following the equalising spot-kick.

The visitors were able to expose Swindon’s soft underbelly all too frequently on Tuesday night and Williams, therefore, felt that Town were always bound to be caught out, with Branco just the unfortunate player bear the brunt of the team’s collective failings.

“I am upset for Raphael because of course he doesn’t mean to make a mistake and it’s not because he is not a good footballer and he is not trying,” Williams told BBC Wiltshire.

“We allowed this situation to happen by not controlling the game at all and allowing balls to be continuously put into the back-line.

“We created that scenario and it was bound to happen for Raphael or anybody else because we didn’t pick up the second ball at all when they hit it forward and we didn’t win the ball cleanly enough so it was bouncing around and people were onto the bits.

“We in particular, this squad of players, can’t play like that.”

Branco has only recently returned to the Town starting line-up after picking up a groin injury in pre-season.

The Brazilian returned to action for the EFL Trophy tie against Chelsea U23 on September 14 and made his first league start of the campaign in the 2-1 defeat at home to Bury last Saturday.