SWINDON Town caretaker boss Tommy Wright felt he received a response from his players one week after relegation despite giving two “horrendous” goals away in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Ipswich Town.

The Swindon coach had asked his players to give him better than they had shown during the 5-0 loss to Milton Keynes Dons last Saturday, and Wright felt he got that even with his team conceding two goals that encapsulated the disappointing campaign.

Brett Pitman’s soft goal – following a mistake by Tractor Boys goalkeeper, David Cornell – midway through the second half gave Swindon hope, but the County Ground club couldn’t find a positive end to their home season.

In his post-match interview, Wright stated that his team did a lot that pleased him but the two goals against were typical of Swindon’s dismal home form.

He said: “I’ll take out of that game that we kept going until the end. The substitutes that came on made a bit of a difference too.

“I thought we started quite well, and we had a couple of chances – they did as well.

“I always thought they were the better team, but I wanted a response from last weekend.

“I wanted a bit of fight, and I thought we got that even though we gave two horrendous goals away again.

“That has been a problem all season, and when you keep giving bad goals away like that, it’s so deflating for everybody else.”

James Norwood’s first-half opener was the first time Ipswich had scored in over 11 hours, and it came via the penalty spot after a clumsy tackle from Jonathan Grounds.

Swindon’s defensive woes continued when Scott Twine tried to over play on the edge of his own box and ended up giving the ball straight to Norwood to poke home a second early in the second period.

Analysing both goals, Wright was dumbfounded. He said: “I don’t know what Twine is doing, he needs to play forward. And the first goal, it’s a poor tackle from Grounds – I don’t know what he’s doing – and it’s a definite penalty.

“I took Grounds off at half-time because I thought he was struggling against James Norwood. You didn’t have to be Pep Guardiola to see that.

“Norwood was bullying him, so I thought I’d put Tom Broadbent on who is a bit bigger and a bit stronger, and I thought he did quite well.

“He dealt with Norwood quite well, and we won more first headers than we did in the first half, which helped.”