Swindon Town's 'fragile' collapse at Hartlepool United leaves ex-Chelsea and Derby County assistant frustrated

Pools were able to turn the game on its head in the closing stages when coming from behind to Stun the Robins with two late goals to end a nine-game run without a win and claim a first victory over Swindon on home soil since 2005.

John Askey’s side did not have things all their own way, with Swindon taking an early lead thanks to Rushian Hepburn-Murphy’s strike and enjoying a strong first 45 minutes.

But credit to Hartlepool, as we have seen throughout Askey’s tenure so far, as they battled away in the second half to find a late equaliser through Connor Jennings and an even later winner thanks to Oliver Finney.

It was a significant result for Hartlepool as it edged them closer to their relegation rivals at the bottom of League Two but, for Swindon, it was another huge blow to their play-off hopes with Morris expressing his frustration at the second half in particular, as the Robins surrendered what would have been a third win in charge for the former Chelsea and Derby County assistant.

“You can say it’s a cruel twist but we just didn’t get going in the second half,” Morris said following the defeat.

“We stopped doing all the good things we were doing in the first half. In spells in the first half we looked like a good team and then, in the second half, the minute we had to start defending we looked a bit like a fragile team.”

Morris continued: “We stopped playing. Even at 1-0 I wasn’t feeling confident on the sidelines.

“There were too many people who were underperforming in the second half. So the word for me is fragile. And when you are fragile you start making poor decisions.”

One of Morris’ key suggestions as to why his side were ‘fragile’ was due to the Suit Direct Stadium crowd.

The Hartlepool faithful roared their side back into the game with Morris insisting his players needed to handle the elements better than what they managed.

“When you come to a place like this and the fans are on a high or they’re getting their backs up because they’re attacking our goal you can’t control every player from the sideline because you can’t hear yourself,” said Morris.

“It needs to happen on the pitch.

“We looked nervous going towards the end of the game. You need brave players to take the sting out of the enthusiasm that’s injected into the opposition team. If you don’t do that they just gather momentum and start smelling blood and feeling like they can punish us and that’s effectively what happened.

“Sometimes when you meet a team who are fighting for their lives, standing up to it is not necessarily always going to win your header or going to win your tackles. Standing up to it, at times, is being brave and making passes. They then have to work.

“They didn’t have to work hard to get close to our goal because they weren’t being made to run around the pitch enough. We played into their hands and they started getting confidence from that and we started wilting.”

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