Gavin Gunning said that Swindon Town’s tough run of fixtures is a useful learning experience for his squad.

Since winning his first game in interim charge 2-0 against Bradford City, Town are yet to take maximum points in any of their four games since.

In his five games in charge, Town have taken on four of the top six form sides in League Two, including all of the top three, making it something of a baptism of fire for the 33-year-old.

With league leaders Stockport County coming up at Edgeley Park this weekend, Gunning said that these games against the division’s top outfits will be useful for him to learn about his players and for them to learn about themselves.

He said: “I think we have got to win games [to turn the mood around], we have got Stocky [Stockport] next week, which isn’t great.

“When I took over, I knew I was coming into some horrific fixtures but that is football, you can’t pick and choose when you take over a team.

“We have played all of the in-form teams, which is good for our learning and we actually learn a lot about ourselves in these situations.

“We played a team with a lot of top midfielders today, it was a poor performance and you don’t like it but you learn a lot from it personnel-wise, their character, and what their level of performance is sometimes.”

Gunning added that were his team to improve then they would need to maximise those learning opportunities and improve upon the mistakes that they were making.

The Irishman was frustrated that the same pattern of self-inflicted errors were costing Town and that needed to be fixed for them to push up the table.

He said: “The message at half time was ‘Don’t be afraid to make mistakes’ because we have shot ourselves in the foot again there in the first half.

“It was an uphill battle straightaway, to go and win the second half is not what I care about or what is good but before we would have gone under there probably, but we still lost the game which is the be-all and end-all.

“We have got to learn from our mistakes, or the team doesn’t improve because if you keep making the same mistakes then you are never going to evolve as a player or as a team, and that is the frustrating part of today.”