Marcus Bignot said that he believes Ian Holloway can change the mood at Swindon Town because he has seen him do it as a player.

Town’s assistant manager was signed by Holloway at both Bristol Rovers and Queens Park Rangers and played under him as he took the club into the Championship whilst they had financial worries.

This is the first time he has coached under the Bristolian, having remained at the club after the departure of Mark Kennedy in October, but he believes he has those same qualities.

Bignot said that Holloway is a specialist at creating a positive atmosphere and changing the mood at all levels of a club.

He said: “It is a massive advantage [to have worked with him before] with my relationship with the players. I am here to support the manager and to challenge him at the right times.

“I know what an Ian Holloway player looks like, I have been one, I know what he expects and what he wants.

“To have that experience and prior knowledge can only help in passing that onto the players.

“For us, it is about having a no-blame culture, a positive attitude. If supporters can see that the players are giving maximum effort and applying the attitude where every action is a positive one then they will buy into that.

“The thing about the manager is that he can change cultures and environments and I have been a part of that.

“When I was with his QPR team that got relegated from the Championship and then three-and-a-half years on through that administration period came back and got promoted on pretty much half the budget.

“I have seen him turn around football clubs, not just on the pitch but within, and bring a football club together.

“That is what he is really skilled at; he is a life coach just as much as he is a football coach.”

Bignot said that against Accrington Stanley on Saturday, there were the first signs of an improved mentality from the players that would help them get out of this situation.

He said: “I am 50 now and since the day I left school I have been in the dressing room and I have been in different environments and different cultures.

“I have experienced everything and within that there are certain standards set and now it is about accountability.

“Without accountability, you can sleepwalk into a blame culture – if you haven’t got that fabric in your organisation then it can become something which detracts from what you are doing.

“We have certainly concentrated on the mentality side of the group and creating that no-blame culture.

“What you saw on Saturday was very pleasing, if you look two weeks ago against Accrington there were frailties to that performance and two weeks on those frailties weren’t as evident.

“Every game for us now is an opportunity and we have to grab it after a performance at the weekend where there were a lot of encouraging signs.”