THE SWINDON Town players needed a ‘little bit of love’ at half-time in Saturday’s draw according to Town boss Mark Cooper.

Hosts, Yeovil, had run relentlessly in the first half as Town, as ever, controlled the ball. However much of the possession was in their own half as Gary Johnson’s side worked hard to stop Swindon from playing out of the back.

It is becoming an increasingly common tactic to combat the Robins’ style of play and Yeovil executed it well, leaving Town looking bereft of ideas at times in the opening 45.

More old-school managers might have been tempted to ‘get into to’ his players at the interval but Cooper knows his players. He understands that it not what makes them tick, instead he offered them a guiding hand, rather than the back of one.

“It would have been easy for me to go in and scream and shout at half-time but this group of players are a little bit unique,” he revealed.

“They don’t respond to that, they respond to a little bit of guidance and a little bit of love. Giving them the right information is more important than jumping up and down. You saw the reaction in the second half, I thought they were outstanding.”

“First half we weren’t fluent, like we usually are. Full credit to Yeovil, they’ve obviously watched us play and tried to stop playing out from the back and pressed us all over the pitch. We weren’t good enough to play through that first press.

“What we needed to do was hang on to a clean sheet, like we did at Barnsley and not give them anything to hang on to, we didn’t.

“Second half I thought we were outstanding, dominated the game. When you look at the effort towards the end we could have won the game. We are little bit frustrated we haven't won with 10 men.”