Gavin Gunning said he was left scratching his head at the way Swindon Town started their 2-1 defeat to Doncaster Rovers.

Doncaster made the most of a poor first half from Swindon as Maxime Biamou and Hakeeb Adelakun fired home to give them a commanding lead at the break that led to boos for the Town players.

Paul Glatzel headed in within a minute of the restart and Swindon made a game of things and were able to give a better account of themselves but the mountain proved too high to climb and they were unable to find a second goal to complete the turnaround.

Gunning said that after such a poor performance on Tuesday night, he was especially disappointed with the way that his side failed to respond from the start against Doncaster.

He said: “You have got to scratch your head, I mean the first half was abysmal.

“Having spoken to the lads before the game and told them what the meaning of the game was, but sometimes it simply doesn’t hit home.

“You have to look yourself in the mirror and think ‘how do I get motivated for this’, how you can’t get up for a League Two game is beyond me if we are starting like that.

“It was just flat and the basics going wrong again, there was no heart, they didn’t run, and didn’t land on the second balls, they landed on all of the second balls.

“It is a simple game in League Two, do the basics really well and be successful, if you don’t then you just linger here."

Gunning felt that his team do not seem up for the realities of League Two football at the moment and are struggling to do the basic things that will help them stop the rot.

He said: "The detail with Adelakun, we wanted to mark him inside and tight, to send him outside the pitch.

"We sent him inside the pitch onto his strong right foot and he scores.

"If I showed you the pre-match meeting back that is exactly what we touched on and said don't let him in the pitch, but we switch off and don't mark.

"The first goal is just a long ball up and we don't deal with it, don't land on the seconds.

"These are the basics of League Two, don't think you can just play football and you don't have to do the dirty side of it.

"Unfortunately, we have a few at the minute are probably thinking they just want to be on the ball and doing little bits and pieces.

"The game at this level is such a contrast, it is not what you are watching on Sky, you are not watching the Premier League, it is a different sport.

"You have got to land on the second balls, you have got to do the basics well, you have got to run hard, and that is obviously where we are coming up short at the moment."