SWINDON Town’s players need to dig deep to recover from their third defeat in a row and renew their promotion push, according to manager Mark Cooper.

The 2-1 defeat to Crawley Town last weekend was their fourth in five matches. However, the Robins can take buoyancy from the fact that their promotion rivals, MK Dons and Bristol City, are in almost equally poor form, meaning Town are still in touch at the top of League One.

Cooper said prior to Saturday’s game that 87 points guarantees promotion - in essence Town needed 10 wins from their 16 remaining games.

After Saturday’s defeat, the margin for error has shrunk to 15 games but Cooper is staying focused and believes Town’s form will return sooner rather than later.

“We have to dig deep now, we’ve got another test on Tuesday against Bradford, we’ve got dig deep and find a result from somewhere to get us back on track,” Cooper told the media.

“There’s still a long way to go, there’s still 15 games and anything can happen.

“We’re certainly not going to panic. We think we’re playing well, I know some would disagree, but I think we’re playing well and I think it will turn.

“(Not winning) will certainly make us grow up a lot quicker. They have to deal with (defeat) – it’s not going to change.

“I’m sure we’ll go on to dominate a lot of games. We just have to make sure we’re a little bit better when the ball comes in our box and a little bit better when the ball goes in their box.”