Clough blasts Sheffield United

Nigel Clough blasted Sheffield United's defending after slumping to a 5-2 defeat against Swindon at The County Ground.

Swindon moved up to fourth place in the League One table after putting on a five-star show against Clough's Blades. But an angry Clough said: "That's seven goals conceded in two games now. We are struggling in defensive positions and it showed again. "We worked on organisation but when people don't do their basic jobs, everything goes out the window. "Too often, when we had the ball, we gave it away cheaply." Clough admitted his side were fortunate not to concede more goals as Swindon dominated the first half but was encouraged by a much-improved second half performance. He added: "We scored two goals away from home and that should be enough to get at least get a point. "When we had that little spell, we could have gone on and even got a third but then they went down the other end and we conceded a poor one." Swindon begun brightly and were unlucky not to go ahead after only four minutes when Yaser Kasim struck the crossbar with a free-kick. The breakthrough came in the 13th minute when Louis Thompson surged across the penalty area and teed up Michael Smith, who lashed the ball beyond Mark Howard and into the bottom-left corner. Smith doubled Swindon's lead 10 minutes after half time from the penalty spot when Neil Collins tripped Massimo Luongo after a marauding run into the penalty area. Three minutes later, Jonathan Obika turned in Bradley Smith's cross for his fourth goal in three games, before Marc McNulty bundled a Ben Davies delivery over the line. Davies then converted Ryan Flynn cross for United's second, before Andy Williams and Thompson put Swindon out of sight. Swindon manager Mark Cooper praised his team's superb first-half display, but was not impressed as the Robins threatened to throw away a 3-0 lead after the break. "We let them back in to 3-2," Cooper said. "You are there thinking the worst could happen. As well as we played, we could be sat here with a point because we did not defend properly at 3-0 up." But Cooper's fears were eased when Williams finished one-on-one and hompson capped a brilliant display with a ferocious strike from outside the area to secure the three points. "I thought that in the first half we were fantastic, that is the best we've played. We totally controlled the 45 minutes of football," Cooper said. "On the whole it was a fantastic spectacle and we played some fantastic football." Breaking news, transfer gossip, line ups and goal alerts from your football club - delivered direct to your mobile. Sign up for Sky Sports Alerts