SWINDON Town head coach Ben Garner will not be overreacting to Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at home to Port Vale and says there is always something to learn – no matter the result.

Town produced the first underwhelming performance of the season last weekend as Ben Garrity’s pair of sweet volleys consigned the hosts to their second league defeat at the County Ground.

Garner was refreshingly honest in his post-match assessment, saying his players were not quite at the races for one reason or another.

Although the Town boss went on to reason that his side has won matches when producing sub-standard displays, and that every game presents an opportunity to learn and improve for his young squad.

Garner said: “We learn every week, we’re always trying to improve. I understand we’ve got a lot of young players here, and we review everything with the individuals and as a group.

“We don’t just play the game and rely on the players picking things up and learning. We go back through the game, we explain why things are happening, and try to enhance their game education and understanding. We do that regardless of the result.

“I think there’s a tendency to think if you lose you need to pull it all to bits and go through everything.

“There was still a lot of good elements to the game on Saturday, but there are obviously areas that we need to improve on.

“Likewise, when we’ve won games, we’ve had a couple of games which we’ve won but our performance could have been a lot better.”

Swindon will hope to return to winning ways against Northampton Town on Saturday – a fixture that has regularly returned drama and intrigue in recent years.

Garner said preparation this week will not change from the days leading up to the Port Vale game, but is hoping for a much-improved final result on the pitch when his players walk out at Sixfields.

The Town boss said: “We’ll prepare in the same detail for Northampton, with the same level of motivation, and the same flow to our week.

“Nothing will change in that respect, we just need to make sure we perform a lot better on Saturday than we did against Port Vale.

“I don’t think it was a bad performance per se, it was just below the standard we’ve set ourselves. We want to get back to the standard we’ve been at, and then some more.”

Swindon’s trip to Northampton Town kicks off at 2pm - away tickets are sold out and will not be available for supporters to purchase on the day.