Gavin Gunning and Charlie Austin both confessed that Swindon Town are struggling with the state of the County Ground pitch this season.

Swindon delivered a sluggish performance in a 1-1 draw with Harrogate Town on Saturday, on a playing surface that looked patchy both during that game and in recent weeks.

Town changed Head Groundsman over the summer as Matt Povey joined having previously been part of the grounds team at Bristol City, taking over from Marcus Cassidy following the end of his 23-year association with the club.

Austin described the pitch as Sunday League standard and felt like the quality of it was inhibiting the side’s performance.

He said: “We just didn’t do enough to win the game, we had parts in the game when we were ok and a little flurry at the end because we had the ascendancy, but we didn’t do enough to win the game and I think that was it.

“They [Harrogate] set up the way that they did, and it suited them and the way that we played, but the pitch doesn’t help with that.

“We like to pass the ball around and the pitch is a Sunday morning pitch at the moment and that is it, I think everybody can see that. But ultimately, we didn’t do enough to win the game of football.”

Gunning echoed what Austin said about the playing surface, believing that it had contributed to a ponderous display from Swindon, with it proving difficult to play their style of football on a pitch in that condition.

He said: “The performance wasn’t very good today, it was just flat, maybe Tuesday [against Tranmere Rovers] has taken a lot out of us with the pitch being very heavy, I am not making excuses, but you have to take that into consideration.

“Today was clunky, the pitch was tough, the ball was bouncing everywhere, and it is so hard to play intricate stuff.

“Maybe we should have turned them a little bit more but we don’t want to get in the habit of doing that, we want to develop and even when you are playing on pitches like that we have to do better, that is life.

“It is no one’s fault, the new groundsman has come in and has been left with the pitch in a poor state. That is unfortunate but we will get it right in the summer.”