Gunning delighted with Town standing up to tough task

Gavin Gunning could not fault his Swindon Town team as they won 2-0 away from home against promotion-chasing Barrow.

Williams Kokolo and Paul Glatzel both fired home in the first half to give Swindon a convincing lead at the break.

A Barrow onslaught was to come after the break, but Swindon stood firm and defended resolutely as they came home from an away game with all three points on a Saturday for the first time this season.

Gunning was pleased with how his side stood up to the challenges that come with taking on a side like Barrow and picking up his first away win as a head coach.

He said: "Barrow away is never an easy game, I have come here a few times in my playing career and got skittled with the rain and the wind.

"People probably thought we were going to come here and be a soft touch, but we weren't.

"The back three were fantastic, the wing-backs did really well, and Nnamdi [Ofoborh] was probably the best player on the pitch.

"In the first five or six minutes we could have scored two goals and then they were offside a few times before they could have had two, so it was a really open start.

"Then we were able to gain the composure and owned the space for the rest of the first half.

"Coming here people probably thought we would be a soft touch, but we were anything but, we did the basics really well and we rolled our sleeves up.

"It was windy, open, very tough and we can only be pleased."

Swindon were also able to ride something of a storm in the second half as Pete Wild chucked on several strikers in an effort to get back into the game, and Gunning was delighted with how Swindon stood up to that challenge.

He said: "In the second half they had that first 20 minutes when they tried to pin us in, but we did really well and we didn't punish them in that transition.

"There were a few times when we got on the back of their back line and we had more time than we thought.

"We did all of the right things today, Monday was dreadful, I can sugar coat it but there is no point, we have learned from that and come to a tougher away ground and stood up to it really well."

Gunning decided to switch the make-up of his midfield for this game as George McEachran and Jake Cain played in front of Nnamdi Ofoborh, and the interim head coach said it had the desired impact.

He said: "It was good to get Cain and McEachran in the team together, they are very good footballers and they manipulate the ball really well.

"Nnamdi would probably prefer to play in those positions as well, but at the minute with Saidou [Khan] and Dawson [Devoy] being out we are juggling because our squad is where it is at.