PHIL Brown branded Swindon Town's efforts in the 2-0 defeat at Exeter City as "unacceptable'' and suggested that his team had meekly accepted their fate at St James Park.

Town were caught out by a route one opener in Devon as Jonathan Forte latched on to a hopeful punt forward to poke the Grecians in front just before the quarter hour mark.

Despite enjoying the lion's share of the possession for much of the remainder of the contest, Town were rarely a threat to Christy Pym's goal and their fate was sealed midway through the second period when the visitors failed to get out from a cleared corner quickly enough and Jayden Stockley powered home a close-range header from a Pierce Sweeney cross.

The result left Town marooned in mid-table, closer to the bottom of the table than the top, with Brown struggling for answers as his team's winless run in League Two stretched to four matches.

"It's difficult to accept that the performance on Tuesday night (the Checkatrade Trophy win at Plymouth), arguably against better opposition and we played the way we played and then today, a totally unacceptable performance,'' said the Town boss.

"I've asked the players about the system, I've asked the players about the individual performances, I've asked the players about team selection and I take full responsibility for all of that.

"If I've got it wrong, I've got it wrong, I'll hold my hands up and apologise to the fans.

"But as far as I'm concerned, the underbelly of the team was exposed today by a solid second division outfit that looked like they had got their basics bang on and we hadn't.''

Town saw plenty of the ball in both halves, but a couple of gilt-edged first-half chances for striker Marc Richards apart, their performance was significantly off in a number of areas.

Pointing out one, Brown said: "Aggression and closing down from the front, which we had on Tuesday night, aggression in the tackle and in the system.

There was lots to admire about Tuesday and I made a few changes, kept the same system and kept the same team.

"I've said to the players I have left out that they've got every reason to bang my door down - that's what I want, that competition for places from individuals and the collective.

"But today, it was almost we accepted that their gameplan was to get ahead in the game.

"It (the Forte goal) was a long punt down the middle and a flick-on and a nothing goal as far as I'm concerned.

"With three centre-backs, you'd expect one of them to put their head on the ball but we didn't do that.

"Then the (Exeter) goalkeeper was bringing more trouble on himself than any other goalkeeper in the league so far this year and we couldn't capitalise on that.

"We had three half-decent chances and there was a decent enough chance to get a foothold in the game.

"The blame lies all over the park. With me, ultimately, but all over the park.

"It's not about systems. We've just had that discussion. You can play whatever you want to play. It doesn't matter.

"When you are on the ball, you pass it to a red shirt or a black shirt - it's as simple as that. We didn't do enough of that.''