THE next time Lee Power thinks about giving Swindon Town a mid-season break in Tenerife, perhaps he would be better advised to keep his money in his pocket, writes Danny Hall.

Since Town have come back from what was described as the ‘perfect’ training camp they have lost four of the next five games, and only one of those against a side in the top eight.

Today’s match against struggling Crawley Town should have been a banker three points. Instead the visitors left as 2-1 victors with mile-wide smirks and a bag of swag.

Of course Swindon did not deserve to lose. Of course Crawley did not deserve to win. But even awful teams will punish you if given half a chance and Crawley said thank you very much for their early and late gifted goals.

In the fifth minute Town needlessly lost the ball playing it out of defence (it’s becoming a habit) and then Yaser Kasim made only a half-hearted attempt at chasing Gwion Edwards back down the left channel and no attempt whatsoever to block the subsequent cross which was nicely finished by Anthony Wordsworth. Kasim’s reaction was to go off the pitch to get a pair of gloves – well, his fingers had been badly burned.

For the remainder of the half, Crawley put 10 men behind the ball and Town, for all their tippy-tappy possession, never once looked like unlocking them.

Andy Williams and Michael Smith got fed up making runs only to see the ‘creatives’ endlessly turn back on themselves. It would be interesting to know the number of positive forward passes inside the final third that found a Town target – not many I suspect.

After what we presume was a half-time bollocking and with Louis Thompson coming on for the ineffective Toffolo while Ben Gladwin switched to the left wing, Town at last played with urgency.

Their goal came in the 58th minute; a fantastic 50-yard run by Jack Stephens, a measured pass to Williams and a nice angled shot from the 20-goal striker.

That should have been the springboard for at least one more goal but too often Town tried to go past one tackle too many (yes, you John Swift) and any high balls or set pieces were easily gobbled up by the Crawley lumps at the back.

Yes, there was a lot of possession but the only save Lewis Price had to make was from a Gladwin shot which everyone in the crowd expected to make the net bulge Then, having rarely set foot in the Swindon half, Crawley completed the smash and grab.

Whatever the merits of whether Crawley deserved a free kick in the build-up, Town’s attempt at defending the set piece in the 89th minute was woeful and Gavin Tomlin cracked a tremendous volley in off the underside of the bar.

Recent Swindon form has now become a full-scale blip, and the lack of confidence on show from ‘the best footballing side in the division’ during the first half was alarming.

Town rather skulked off at the end, perhaps understandably Williams being the only player to go through his normal post-match routine of acknowledging the crowd, and the players were banned from speaking to the press.

Bradford on Tuesday night are likely to be a whole lot tougher than Crawley. How desperately we need the injured Massimo Luongo back for that.