SWINDON Town midfielder Ben Gladwin pulled no punches in his assessment of the Robins’ performance during their 1-0 defeat to Colchester United on New Year’s Day.

Town enjoyed almost 70 per cent possession at the Colchester Community Stadium but managed just four shots on target compared to United’s five as Luke Hannant headed the only goal of the game in the first half.

Head coach Scott Lindsey described his side’s display as “slow and ponderous” post-match, while Gladwin was arguably even more brutal in his analysis.

He said: “Absolutely just not good enough. We just didn’t turn up in any way, shape, or form, I don’t think.

“There are no excuses for that, whatsoever. We know we’re capable of far, far better than that, and it didn’t happen.”

Asked what the areas of their game that Town did not do well enough in, Gladwin said: “First and foremost, just the basics. Running hard enough, competing hard enough – which they did really well, and we just didn’t match them.

“That’s unacceptable really when you think about Thursday night [against Northampton] and what we were able to offer against a team who were third in the league, taking a result away from home.

“So to not be able to back that up [against Colchester] is very frustrating for all of us.”

Since dominating Mansfield Town 5-2 away from home in late-October, Swindon have only won two of their nine games in all competitions.

Many of those performances followed a similar pattern where Town dominated the ball but did not create as much as they would like, ultimately making it tougher for Lindsey’s men to gain a positive result.

With a fortnight to prepare for their next game, Gladwin believes it must be used to fine-tune the club’s football philosophy.

He said: “We obviously try to control the football match by having the football and trying to limit them to as few chances as possible, but that’s probably the part that we’re not doing well enough.

“If we have a lot of the ball in the other team’s half and we limit them to very little, then worst-case scenario it should be 0-0 and then we go to try and win the game, but that’s not happening at the moment. We have lots of the ball, but they still get chances – that can’t happen.

“We need to look at getting better at what we do because that is the identity of the club, that is what they want to do. We have time on the training ground now, so that has to happen.”