Ian Holloway labelled Swindon Town's performance during their 4-0 defeat at Colchester United as unacceptable.

Swindon were blown to bits during the first 45 minutes as an own goal from Harry Smith from yet another corner got Colchester rolling and the momentum never switched.

A brace from Samson Tovide and an assist when he set up Jack Payne capped off a mortifying first half before both teams eased up knowing it was all done after the break.

Holloway said that he didn't even recognise some of the players as they wilted in Essex to see the club fall to the bottom of the table.

He said: "It is difficult to say [what went wrong in the first half], I think that the goal wounded us and then everything that we were doing before that goal stopped.

"The energy that they got from it and the energy that we lost from it was unforgivable. Absolutely, totally unforgivable.

"In truth, we were beaten there and then and then we went two-goals down again and they just ran all over this.

"I haven't seen that from my lot. I have seen mistakes and it almost mot affect us and we have been able to come back and turn that around but tonight that was unacceptable.

"I am shocked because I didn't expect that from these lads, from the fight that they showed at the weekend before penalties.

"Your heart and your soul should be fighting for the people who have driven up here to watch you play and you look like you don't care.

"It is unacceptable and they know that."

Holloway added that even if the team was still feeling tired from the exhausting game at the weekend, it was no excuse for this display.

He said: "Did I pick too many who played 120 minutes? Maybe but even so that is not good enough.

"Let's face it we are in the mire right now and we deserve to be after that because the only word for it is unacceptable.

"Anybody with a Swindon badge on, I apologise because that is not good enough and I am going to show them what that looked like - they are going to watch every single minute of that first half.

"The fight that I expect them to have, I didn't see until the second half and that is too late.

"I am hurting badly at the moment. We have lost to Carlisle already and we have lost to Morecambe already and now we are rooted to the bottom.

"Now that we are every game is going to be tougher and if this is how we are going to respond then I might need the cavalry to come in.

"As a professional to let a goal in and then show the disappointment as much as we did is unacceptable.

"We had an awful lot of minutes still to go to change the game around but if you let something like that hurt you so badly then we need to change it."