MIFFED boss Kevin Bond emerged from the wreckage of Cherries' calamitous defeat at Swindon and admitted: "We beat ourselves."

Billy Paynter's second-half hat-trick condemned Cherries to a 4-1 reverse at the County Ground - as Bond's charges hit the self-destruct button.

Paynter put the Robins on course for victory when he profited from a defensive blunder, with the finger of blame pointed at Cherries goalkeeper Asmir Begovic.

The Canadian stopper took the rap after Paynter had been presented with an open goal following a mix-up with Paul Telfer just three minutes into the second half.

Begovic, who is on loan to Cherries from Portsmouth, saw his intended clearance hit Telfer before landing invitingly at Paynter's feet.

"It was an horrendous mistake," lamented Bond, who had seen Danny Hollands's first-half strike cancel out Simon Cox's seventh-minute opener for the hosts.

"It was an unbelievable blow and you could see how deflating it was. We shot ourselves in the foot for their first goal but picked ourselves up and got back into it.

"But we couldn't do it a second time because the second goal gave them such a huge lift and left us immensely deflated. It would have been ridiculously easy to avoid if someone (Begovic) had called.

"Asmir will undoubtedly end up as a really good goalkeeper but he needs to learn from situations like this because we need him to command his area. He can see everything and can make people's minds up but it's hard to change a non-talker into a talker.

"We ceased being a team after that and lost all leadership and focus. We didn't do what we had done when we went behind in the first half."

Despite going behind to Cox's early opener, Cherries were in the ascendancy for the remainder of the first half and Swindon were booed off at the break after Hollands had levelled in the 37th minute.

But Liverpudlian Paynter, who gave Neil Young a trying time in the second half, completed the first hat-trick of his career by adding further goals in the 64th and 85th minutes.

Bond added: "I thought we were by far and away the better side in the first half. We got the ball down and played and caused them problems. We showed character and thoroughly deserved to get back into the game. But that is only half of it.

"I was chuffed at half-time and said to the players that if we were going to have any problems, they would be ones that we gave ourselves and that's exactly what happened.

"Billy Paynter caused Neil Young problems all day but any mistake he makes is honest. He's a wholehearted player and just had a bad day at the office. You can forgive that but the second goal was awful and it came at a crucial time. You can't give away goals like that and expect to win."