Furious Malpas warns heads will roll after Leeds defeat (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Furious Malpas warns heads will roll after Leeds defeat

5:28pm Saturday 13th September 2008 in Wiltshire Sport By Jon Boyle

Swindon Town manager Maurice Malpas warned that heads will roll after branding his team's defending as "pathetic" in their 3-1 defeat to ten-man Leeds.

Awful howlers by Jerel Ifil and goalkeeper Phil Smith gifted the visitors their first two goals, before Jermaine Beckford raced clear to seal his brace for United late on.

And Malpas stormed: "I'm lost for words after that, to say it was pathetic defending from us would be kind.

"One or two defensive mistakes would have been bad but three beggars belief.

"It's happening every week now.

"There will be one or two heads that will have to roll for that.

"Apart from our goal and one other situation when Coxy had a header saved, Leeds just passed it about and were in charge.

"I said at half-time we've got to move the ball quicker but we sat back with four defenders marking one striker.

"There was not enough urgency - the players just seemed to accept that someone has made a mistake, but we need to respond better.

"The buck stops with me, I pick the team, but I can assure you that team won't play next week."

Malpas felt the defeat was an opportunity lost after 13,001 fans turned up to watch Town lose.

He said: "The fans who don't normally come will think 'why do they get paid that kind of money to play like that?' and they won't come back.

"The players were bright in training going into the game but the lights went out at times.

"We will train hard this week and we've got to try and solve it."