SWINDON Town head coach Ben Garner believes his team will beat Rochdale this weekend if they repeat the standard of performance shown against Colchester United last time out at the County Ground.

Prior to three excellent away wins in a row, Town drew 0-0 to Hayden Mullins’ side on home turf in late September. However, the general consensus of those coming away from SN1 that evening was Garner’s men probably did enough to warrant all three points.

While a point was gratefully received, the Town boss felt this was another example of where his team dropped two points when they were good enough to win.

Looking ahead to Rochdale on Saturday, Garner admitted recording a thumping home win has been high on the agenda for a while now following some morale-boosting away victories.

He said: “It’s important for us to record a dominant home win – we spoke about it this week.

“Our away form has been very, very good, we don’t prepare any differently for home or away games.

“We don’t play in a different way either. It’s just that our away performances have translated into more points.

“Some of our home performances have been really good, but they haven’t quite yielded the result.

“If we take the last home game, against Colchester, if we can repeat that performance with a bit more cutting edge going forward, I’ll be delighted because I’m sure that will be enough for us to win the game.”

Off the back of the three recent wins – that featured eight goals for and just two against – Garner suggested the mood in the group is at an all-time high, something he hopes continues for as long as possible.

The Town boss said the closeness of his group not only helps with running the extra yard on a Saturday, but also when demanding more from teammates without it causing a problem.

Garner said: “It’s really important for the group to have that unity. In my experience, I don’t think you can be successful without it. Every team that I’ve been involved with over the years, the best season has come with groups that are close.

“Not just close in terms of being mates etc, but also the closeness that means you can actually challenge each other. And you can even criticise in training if standards aren’t right, but that closeness means no one takes it personally.

“We’ve tried to help forge those bonds, but a lot of it is down to the players and how they run the dressing room.”