SWINDON Town manager Richie Wellens’ conceded this afternoon’s lacklustre 1-0 defeat at home to Crawley Town in League Two encapsulated exactly the progress the club have been able to make in recent months.

Wellens’ side claimed a 2-1 win away at Tranmere Rovers last weekend to make it seven points from a possible nine, but then followed that up with a flat performance against Crawley.

Filipe Morais’ scrappy effort in first-half stoppage time was enough to win the visitors a poor game at the Energy Check County Ground, with Swindon spurning the chance to snatch a late draw when Keshi Anderson saw a penalty saved by Glenn Morris.

As good as Town have been in wins at Tranmere and Macclesfield Town two weeks before that, they were as poor against Crawley and Wellens admitted that sums up exactly the inconsistencies within his side at present.

“It shows where we are at this moment in time when we are getting defeats like that,” said Wellens.

“In the first half an hour, when it came to closing down and being aggressive, we were very, very good. When the ball turned over, we were really, really poor.

“There were so many bad decisions, so many mis-placed passes.

“We worked all week on switching the play and getting our full-backs out and creating two-on-ones out wide, but we very rarely switched play.

“When we did, the pass was behind the full-back and that allowed Crawley extra time to get across. When it did get out to the full-backs, the wingers were standing in a straight line.

“Tranmere played the same system last week and we played really well, but for some reason today, we just chose to do the wrong thing at times.

“All in all, you get these days sometimes. Every pass is just a little bit out of reach, you make mistake after mistake and then it’s topped off by the penalty miss.

“OK, we did not play well, but if we score the penalty and come away 1-1, we still have that bit of momentum.”

The nature of Crawley’s winning goal was particularly disappointing for Wellens, with Morais’ effort following a corner just before half-time taking two deflections before nestling in the back of the net.

That was one of few attacking threats the visitors posed on the day and the Swindon boss conceded his side should have known not let their attention drop at a vital moment.

“It hurts more that a team has just come here and banked in 5-4-1 and defended. As soon as they won the ball, they just booted it up the pitch,” said Wellens.

“We had not really been in danger, but the goal was really poor because we allowed him to get inside on his right foot and get a cross in and then the defensive header is really poor.

“We have just got little deficiencies in our set-up where we allow a team to get a ball into the box that we don’t clear and they score a goal.

“And the timing of it too was poor – right before half-time when we should be switched on.”