Gavin Gunning said that Swindon Town will need to shake off their losing mindset if they are to make real improvements.

Swindon fell to their third defeat of the Gunning era against league leaders Mansfield Town on Saturday, conceding three goals that hugely frustrated the interim head coach with the basic defensive mistakes that were made.

Gunning said that Town had become stuck in a losing mindset that was causing these kinds of mistakes to continue creeping into their play and hampering performances that were otherwise deserving of more.

He said: “The thing is that the players are probably used to getting beat at this stage, they are used to conceding goals and they have obviously let that creep into their mindset of this is how we do it.

“But that is not what I want it done, so if they can’t do it then they won’t play.

“You have seen that the difference in the level of this league is minimal from top to bottom, we have seen the two best teams in the league in the last couple of weeks, even MK Dons are up there and the difference is minimal.

“The players are the players, and they are good lads but the mentality has to switch and become more of a killer beast."

Gunning was particularly frustrated with the manner of the second goal, within a minute of Swindon getting back onto terms, saying it was the clearest sign that the mentality of the players was not what it needed to be for them to properly compete with the top sides.

Paul Glatzel had fired into the roof of the net within five minutes of the restart to restore parity, but from the kick-off, Mansfield went up the other end and Davis Keillor-Dunn was allowed to curl a shot into the back of the net to wipe out the enthusiasm.

He said: “I just think that when you score a goal at Mansfield and then you concede 20 seconds later, it is criminal, that is just a lack of professionalism.

“You cannot be conceding 20 seconds after you score, you have got to be thinking ‘Where is the ball going? How can we be compact? We might sit in front for two minutes to get ourselves back going again because we are on top now.’

“But instead, we switch off, Keillor-Dunn comes in, bang, great finish, but that is the most frustrating part."