Goalscorer Matt Penney admitted the Blues should have had last night’s game at Cheltenham won by half-time and says they need to eradicate the costly errors which ultimately allowed the Robins to win the fixture 2-1.
Penney netted a brilliant first goal for the club - and in English football - in the ninth minute and Town were dominant for most of the first half and for a period of the second but were unable to add to their lead, with Macauley Bonne missing a golden opportunity not long after the left-back’s strike.
"Devastated. I thought the lads were excellent, especially in the first half, I thought we played well, created chances,” Penney said afterwards.
"Even for 15 or 20 minutes of the second half I thought it was great but then we’re just making sloppy mistakes and giving teams a chance and it’s killing us. I’m devastated but we move on to Saturday and work harder.”
He added: "We’ve got to eradicate those mistakes as soon as possible because when we keep clean sheets it gives us a chance in games.
"We know offensively we’re a threat, so we need to hurry up and show that the door as soon as possible and then it gives us a chance to build on. As I say, I’m devastated and so were the boys in there, we’re gutted.
"It was a great start from the boys. We scored and we were creating chances. Realistically the game should have been done at half-time, but even in the second half we [were on top for a spell] but then made costly mistakes and again it’s come to bite us in the foot.”
Regarding his goal, he said: "It’s nice to score but ultimately we want the three points and it wasn’t to be today. We’re all gutted.”
While he scored once during his loan spell with St Pauli in his spell on loan in 2. Bundesliga in 2019/20, the 23-year-old hadn’t previously found the net in England: "In Germany I scored but it’s my first one in English football.”
Asked whether that’s a type of goal he scores a lot in training and whether there are likely to be more similar strikes, he said: "That’s me all over, fingers crossed I can get a few more goals like that, but ultimately we want to win games. If it’s not winning us games, it’s not helpful.
"The manager wants his full-backs getting forward. I’m all for getting goals and assists but as a back four we need to give ourselves a chance instead of giving teams a leg up. We’ll go back to the training ground and we’ll work harder.”
He added: "The performance was there, especially in the first half, but ultimately we need to put these mistakes out to win games. That’s what we’re here for, to win games and get promotion and that second-half performance was nowhere near good enough. We need to buck our ideas up and get rid of these mistakes.”
The former Sheffield Wednesday man believes there’s more than enough talent in the squad and enough time to get the campaign on track.
"Of course, we’re only three games into the season,” he said. "There are a lot of new boys in there, so we go again, we learn from the mistakes, watch it back and then we go again on Saturday, work harder and hopefully we can get those three points.
"It was Kyle [Edwards]’s first start and Cammy [Burgess]’s first start. I thought they both did well, especially Cammy, I thought he was excellent. It’s going to take time but ultimately we need to get the three points and start winning games.”
Regarding Edwards, who was pretty much unplayable for much of the first half he said: I’ve played against him a few times over the years, so it’s nice to be with him rather than against him.”
Penney has started all three of Town’s League One games this season but now has competition for his spot with on-loan Middlesbrough man Hayden Coulson having been on the bench for the first time since joining the club last night.
"There’s competition in every position now, which is only going to make us better and stronger.,” he said. "It’s a long campaign, so there’s a lot to come.”