Gavin Gunning said that the wet weather this week has impacted Swindon Town’s preparations for their trip to Stockport County on Saturday.

Heavy rainfall and high winds have been causing trouble across Swindon and Wiltshire throughout the week, causing flooding and the area was even subject to a tornado warning on Thursday.

Town have experienced their own problems with the weather as their ability to train has been impacted by the flooding and Gunning explained how he has been having to work around the obstacles the elements have put in front of him.

He said: “It [the weather] has been horrific, we haven’t been able to get on the grass today and that is not what you need.

“Certain guys can’t train on the astroturf, so that kind of kills your preparation, but there are no excuses, we will just have to do more analysis-type things going into the weekend.”

League leaders Stockport are this week’s opposition and Town’s interim head coach said that despite a run of bad results, he still believed that County were the league’s benchmark.

He said: “I watched their last three games back and they dominated most of the games, it has just been set plays, where usually they are unbelievable at defending set plays because all of their players are huge.

“But it just gets like that sometimes in football where you have a header that half-hits your head and spins into someone’s feet, but I don’t think they have gone soft it has just been unfortunate.

“They are a proper good side and have unbelievable quality for this level everywhere.

“Everybody knows they are the big hitters, and they are the level that you have to try and get to to be successful.

“It doesn’t take a genius to work out that they have got the best players in the league, and they have spent the most money on all of their players, and that is just where they are at.

“Every one of their strikers is a top League Two striker if not League One, wide men you have got Nick Powell who was at Man United and has had an unbelievable career, [Connor] Lemonheigh-Evans on the right, [Myles] Hippolyte on the right, [Will] Collar out there, and you have got [Antoni] Sarcevic who was one of the top men at Bolton.

“The list is endless, but it is a fantastic opportunity for us to go there and cause a shock.”