Gavin Gunning said that he felt Swindon Town have started to look more comfortable now that they have settled on a back three. 

Swindon played almost the entire first half of the season with a back three after Michael Flynn had built a squad with his preferred style of play in mind.

The interim head coach initially attempted to move away from that and to a back four after taking over in January, using that in each of his first eight games.

Saying in his introductory press conference: “I don’t think we are going to play like how the last regime was, it is a different formation and a different style of play.”

However, after a difficult run of results and a large degree of experimentation, partially due to the fitness levels of many of the players, Gunning said that he had decided to revert to a back three ahead of the 2-1 win against Notts County.

He said: “We wanted to play the back four and we have played our best stuff since I have been here with a four, but that was with Sads [Saidou Khan] in the team, so Dawson [Devoy] could play higher.

“I think that with Dawson having to play deeper and the recruitment has been around a back three, so I think that going forward that is probably where we will be at until we can recruit again.”

Swindon have won two of the subsequent three games since Gunning decided to make that change, including a clean sheet away at playoff-chasing Barrow, although the two wins did sandwich a galling defeat at Sutton United.

Following the victory at the SO Legal Stadium, Gunning said that he felt like the move to the old shape has helped his team to perform better as it is better suited to the available players.

He said: “Definitely [we are more comfortable], I came in and I changed it, and we were playing some unbelievable stuff, for the first five or six games we were battering everybody.

“And then we came back to play at home and the pitch deteriorated and we are trying to play that stuff, but the ball is bouncing around, and people are making mistakes, so we get jittery.

“For the minute I think it is best that we keep to a back three because that is the best thing for the personnel that we have got.”