Gavin Gunning said that Swindon Town showed "no desire" to perform at an acceptable level during their 2-1 defeat to Accrington Stanley.

Aaron Drinan scored for the second consecutive game to give Swindon the lead two minutes after the restart after he reacted quickest from a corner.

But Jack Nolan blasted home a penalty and then Alex Henderson unleashed a rocket to see the game turn and Accrington leave with the points.

Gunning questioned whether his players had the required desire to perform at this level after a desperately disappointing display.

He said: "That was dreadful, there was no intensity, and no appetite to be a successful team.

“That is why we are where we are in the table, it is not about formations, it is not about technical ability, it is heart.

“You need to wear your heart on your sleeve and graft, that is the bare minimum, if you don’t graft and you don’t work your tail off, you are going to come up short in every game at this level.

“The difference in teams and quality is minimal, so if you don’t graft then you are not going to get anywhere.

“They had a couple of chances that we just gave them tonight and they scored two goals, it is shocking, we are just compounding errors with errors.

"We don't do our jobs and that is what happens when you are not professional enough as a whole, and I include myself in this, it has got to be better.

"It comes from me, I am a passionate guy, I was nearly having a heart attack on the side of the pitch, but if you don't have that inside you then you are playing the wrong sport. You are going to have a realisation and you will fall down the levels."

Gunning said that he felt that the players required a dose of tough love to help them escape this rut.

He said: "Sometimes you need the home truths, that is the realism of it and where you are going.

"You are 18th in League Two and you have conceded so many goals.

"Tonight again we have not played at our best, but we have gone 1-0 up and you should see the game, but no, we go and make simplistic mistakes and follow up those mistakes with other mistakes.

"We are ultimately compounding mistakes with mistakes and it is leading to goals and it is massively frustrating for the fans and for everybody involved.

"As a staff and as a football team, it has got to mean more and it has got to hurt."

Gunning was also quizzed on his decision to make three changes to the line-up from the weekend.

He said: "We didn't really have that much rotation today, Saidou [Khan] was out injured.

"And then we changed shape and that was the thought process behind in Williams [Kokolo] and Rushian Hepburn-Murphy coming back in. It is obviously didn't work because we were horrific."