Gavin Gunning said that he does not feel he has been throwing the Swindon Town players under the bus after recent poor performances.

Swindon have been on a bad run of results, with three straight defeats against Mansfield Town, Accrington Stanley, and Doncaster Rovers seeing the interim head coach having picked up just ten points from his 11 games in charge.

The 33-year-old has been highly critical of his players and their mentalities following their recent displays and that has caused many fans to question whether such a public dressing down was going to help the players to improve.

However, Gunning said that he does not believe that he has been calling the players out unnecessarily after defeats and has been instead doing what he can to protect them.

He said: “I am not calling the players out, they know, that is not calling the players out.

“It is on me, it is not on the players, it is on me, and the players are obviously going to be disappointed in themselves because they haven’t performed.

“That is what I have done [protect the players], when you stink the house out like that it is fine, but when the lads have come on, they changed the game, so they get a pat on the back and [Paul] Glatzel gets another goal, brilliant.”

Gunning added that he felt it was his responsibility to continue working hard on making the team more solid so they were not being forced to chase games like they were after falling two goals behind against Doncaster during the first half.

He said: “I don’t think we can be chasing games like that, we have got to a point in the season where we need to win some games, get on the front foot, and enjoy it.

“I think that Accrington had two chances and then again today they have two shots on target and scored two goals.

“Teams aren’t cutting us open, and we had 15 or 16 shots and a couple on target, we are getting the better of these teams, but you are always chasing your tail when you go one- or two-nil down and you have got to be more solid.

“That is on me to work on that during the week, which we do, and we just have to keep going with that because, in the end, it will work. It is all about believing.”