The Swindon Town manager talked down his side’s automatic promotion chances after defeat to MK Dons

A downbeat Ian Holloway believes his Swindon Town are now fighting for one spot in the hunt for automatic promotion out of League Two.

The Robins were beaten 2-1 by MK Dons at the County Ground on Saturday, leaving the gap between them and Cambridge United in third is four points, with Paul Warne’s side a further three points up the road with nine game to go.

For Holloway, Saturday’s defeat to their promotion rivals puts the top two spots out of Swindon’s reach, although not mathematically, but he feels his side will struggle to make up the ground given the form and momentum Dons and leaders Bromley are carrying into the final stretch.

“It will be difficult to catch Dons and Bromley now,” he said afterwards. “For me, there is only one (automatic) place to get now. We needed to beat them today, and we’ve lost.

“When you let goals in, it kills you. We still showed character, so there’s still hope. We’ve got to win on Tuesday, and Saturday and the next Saturday, like they have. I wish we were on the run they’re on, but this result has put us in a much more difficult position with the results everyone else has got.”

Trailing at the break to Alex Gilbey’s tenth goal of the season, Swindon nearly came away with a point - the result Dons boss Paul Warne felt they deserved - when Ollie Clarke equalised 11 minutes after the break. However, Marvin Ekpiteta bundled the winner of the line on 78 minutes to be sure of the points for Dons, claiming their third win in a week.

Holloway was gracious in defeat afterwards, though felt his side have played worse and won games in recent weeks.

He added: “Well done to them. It is tough to win at this time of year and they’re on such a great run. I think we did as well as them, but we looked more nervous while they had a bit of confidence.

“After letting a goal in, we showed real character. I didn’t go mad at half-time, I told them what we needed to do and they did it and we got back into it. We scored out of nothing rather than with some of our better chances.

“I’m just disappointed with the second goal. We are letting in so many set-pieces. I’m bitterly disappointed for the lads because that’s not a bad performance considering some of the others we’ve had recently.”