Alan Pardew felt his side didn't get the breaks as visitors Swindon frustrated the hosts at St. Mary's on Tuesday evening.

The gaffer thought his side were apprehensive, particularly in the second half which affected the display.

"We started to get a bit of steam up before half time, but that's the nature of football, sometimes half time can spoil your momentum," he said afterwards. "That's no excuse for us for losing grip of the second half, they had a good ten minute spell, and had a good chance that Kelv saved, but then they scored. When you are the away team and you set up like that, that's exactly the game plan you want to happen, from that moment on we didn't do ourselves justice.

"Swindon had a good game plan, to try and stop us and restrict us, defend deep and defend in numbers. You need a break really when you get that and we didn't really get one, we had a couple of close shaves in the first half, we hit one over the bar from a free kick and we've had one that just hit the keeper rather than him save it.

"I was fairly comfortable with how we were at that time, the game changed at the start of the second, where we started a little bit sloppy, they had a good spell and we gifted them a goal really. From that moment on, unfortunately, we got a bit anxious, our play was anxious, our crossing was disappointing and we lacked a bit of quality which is unusual for us.

"It's a really frustrating evening, and Swindon came to do that and they got away with it in some ways, but they also did a professional job as well so the two combined got them the win.

"Your full backs need to be imaginative in those situations, the wide players were tied up and at times we fell down in those areas I thought. We still had big chances, you can go to any level of football and get frustrated with teams that do that, and you need a break and a bit of quality, but unfortunately for us we didn't get either."

Saints struck the woodwork on a handful of occasions, but ultimately the match got away from his team despite a few brushes with the frame of the goal.

"There were a few of those but we are just disappointed. We put in so much effort and I think we looked a little bit jaded if I'm honest in the second half, the efforts of the Leeds game perhaps took their toll a little bit. We would still like to have had a bit more quality on the pitch and it's a shame for our fans because we had got ourselves in a good position tonight. Now we have got to lift ourselves because that is a blow to us as a group.

"I thought there was a little bit of fatigue in there, but also pressure. There was significant pressure on us tonight to get the win, and I thought we were rash with our deliveries from the back at times. We've got some good players here and we know we have got a good team so we have got to make sure that we finish well now and try and win every game until the end of the season."