MIDFIELDER James Dunne hopes Swindon Town manager Phil Brown will return to the County Ground next season, despite his failure to guide the club into the League Two play-offs.

Dunne, 28, believes a confusion between the management style of Brown’s predecessor David Flitcroft and the current boss among players has helped contribute to Town’s poor form of late.

Four draws and three losses leaves Town with only pride to play for during today’s visit to Colchester and Dunne admitted to being disappointed both individually and as a member of the team.

He said: “Some people are still playing under David Flitcroft’s role whereas others are doing what the manager wants now.

“When you’ve got a mixture of the two, things aren’t good.

“You need to be on his page to get the results.

“Hopefully he gets the job, then he can have a whole pre-season to get his points across to the players and those he’s going to bring in.

“It’s been disappointing. We haven’t been good enough, we haven’t been consistent enough.

“That’s why we’re not in the play-offs.”

Despite Town’s poor form, Dunne firmly believes Brown has helped improve Swindon’s ability on the pitch.

He referred to the club conceding seven goals in their last six games, an improvement on Town’s defensive record in their opening 38 fixtures – which saw them concede 58 goals.

Dunne said: “With the new manager coming in, I think he’s made us better - even though the results don’t show that.

“He’s stopped us leaking goals. Since he came in he wanted clean sheets.

“We’ve been in control of games. For example, Morecambe at home - we controlled the game but let in a sloppy goal and then we’re chasing the game.

“You can look at today’s game as getting ready for next season and building some confidence.”