FOLLOWING their latest miserable away day, Swindon Town manager Mark Cooper stressed that the Robins’ fans must remain patient as he and his players look to develop a certain style of football.

Town were impotent and disorganised during the worst moments of a forgettable afternoon at Leyton Orient on Saturday, as two Lloyd James penalties were enough to send the O’s top of League One once again.

The 2-0 loss was Swindon’s 10th in the league this season - a record beaten only by bottom club Stevenage, second-bottom Notts County and Gillingham – but Cooper reiterated that his squad remains a work in progress.

“You could see the team we had out on the pitch today.

“We had a lot of changes, a lot enforced and we wanted to come and give a good account of ourselves and try to play football,” he said.

“That’s the overriding thing – people have to grasp that we are going to play football and we are probably going to lose some games along the way because of the way we’re trying to do it.

“There will be frustrating times.

“We didn’t have enough of a threat in the final third and whichever front three we had on the pitch didn’t create enough.”

In contrast, Orient have had the benefit of several seasons under the tutelage of Russell Slade and Cooper felt the table-toppers’ performance shows what can be possible on a small budget given time.

“They work immensely hard for each other.

“They close you down and press and hope that you make mistakes and when you do they take advantage of it,” he said.

“They bring (Kevin) Lisbie and (Shaun) Batt on, they’ve got lots of pace and lots of experienced players.

“They know what they’re doing.

“We have got a way we have to play, we’ve had some good results with it this season and we’re going to have some frustrating times but in the long run we’ll be far better for it.”