MARK Cooper has found the durability of his centre-back pairing “remarkable”, but he’s urged Darren Ward and Grant Hall to improve their decision-making as Swindon Town go in search of a first clean sheet in five outings.

Ward and Hall have played every single second of Swindon’s 21 league and cup matches this term, keeping seven shut-outs in the process, but in recent weeks a series of defensive blunders have given their fans and manager cause for concern.

With 11 goals conceded in their last five matches, Cooper has called on the duo to tighten up when he leads his team to Colchester United tomorrow afternoon.

“They’ve done remarkably well to play that number of games, I think they’ve played every minute of every game,” said Cooper.

“We haven’t really got a choice at the moment, they want to play, they want to make sure they put Saturday to the back of everyone’s minds. We need to get back to trying to keep clean sheets.

“I don’t think I can question the attitude. I can question decision-making at vital times in the game. No matter what level of football you play at, if you keep making mistakes in critical areas of the pitch you won’t win games.

“We have to eradicate the silly mistakes that are costing us goals, it’s as simple as that. We know that we’re going to score goals if we have a solid platform to work from.

“That doesn’t just mean we should blame the defence because, like they always say, you defend from the front.”

Cooper knows his team are in for a tough test again tomorrow, with Colchester boasting several players with top-flight experience amongst their ranks, one of whom is former Birmingham City and Crystal Palace striker Clinton Morrison.

“Clinton’s been a terrific goalscorer and centre-forward over the last few years,” said Cooper. “Whoever we play against, they’ve got players who can score goals. We had Lee Hughes a couple of weeks ago.

“Whoever you play you know they’re going to have players that can hurt you so you have to defender properly, no matter who you’re playing against - whether it’s a Sunday morning in the pub team - you have to defend properly otherwise you concede goals.”