TUESDAY night’s late defeat at Grimsby Town may have done Swindon Town’s League Two standing no material damage in terms of position, but that is of little interest to skipper Olly Lancashire for whom points very definitely mean prizes.

Mitch Rose’ late winner at Blundell Park brought an end the four-game unbeaten league run - seven in all competitions - of Town that had moved them up among those contending at the sharp end of the table.

Not that statistics like that matter a jot at this stage of the campaign to County Ground captain Lancashire, who believes steadily building up a head of steam for the final dash for honours should be the focus for David Flitcroft’s men.

“Any game at this level is tough, you can’t really look at the league table,’’ said the 28 year old.

“It’s all about the teams that can find the consistency.

“If you look at the last five years, there are certain (amounts of) points that get you promoted.

“You can look at the table all you like but for me personally, I’d rather look at the points per game and then when you get to February or March, that’s when it’s time to start looking at the table and picking people off.’’

Town got off to a sluggish start in midweek and despite hitting back to lead at half-time, in part courtesy of Keshi Anderson’s belter, they found themselves constantly troubled by the pace of the Mariners’ Siriki Dembele and Diallang Jaiyesimi and physical presence of Grimsby frontman Jamille Matt.

Lancashire, who saw first-hand the trouble that Matt could cause, added: “It’s disappointing.

“(On) Saturday (at Yeovil) we had that warning, going down 1-0 and after 30 seconds (at Grimsby) we had that header (from Siriki Dembele) from which Cooky (Reice Charles-Cook) pulled off an unbelievable save.

“It’s down to concentration again. The fitness is there and we’ve proved time and time again that we can go to the end, but at the start it’s about concentration.

“It’s all about keeping them out and finding your way into the game because at this level the first 10 minutes are always going to be scrappy, with everyone trying to find the right sort of tempo.

“There’s a lot of those sorts of strikers (like Matt). I’ve played up against him and (Port Vale’s) Tom Pope and I thought we’ve dealt with that sort of striker very well.

“But all three goals (at Grimsby) were very soft.

“It’s the same in any league - football matches are won by fine margins and concentration levels have to be right up there for the whole 90 minutes.

“On a cold, windy Tuesday night it was going to be tough. Obviously we were 2-1 up and we would have hoped to come away with the three points.

“It’s not the sort of football we want to play but it’s at times like that, especially when you are 2-1 up, where you want to get the three points.’’

Town return home to welcome Newport County to the County Ground tomorrow (3pm) - a club on the brink of dropping out of the EFL last term, but having undergone something of a renaissance under Mike Flynn to sit in mid-table approaching the midway point of this campaign.

“He (Flynn) is doing a very, very good job there. Newport is a tough place to go and play and I expect teams are finding it tough there,’’ added Lancashire.

“But we’re back at the County Ground on Saturday and we’ll be looking to bounce back well which we have done this season.

“Bar Barnet and Crawley, I think that other than that it (the home form) has been okay.

“Obviously we’d want to turn those draws into wins but the boys are not thinking anything about that home (form) now.

“We’re a good team, we know what we’re good at and when we do it we will more often than not win games.’’