BOSS Mark Cooper slammed his players after their 1-0 defeat at home to doomed Yeovil, a loss which ended any Town hopes of an automatic promotion spot.

A low James Berrett effort from distance beat Wes Foderingham and was enough to give the Glovers an unlikely three points.

The result means Swindon are now seven points behind Preston and six behind MK Dons. Despite having a game in-hand victories in their four remaining games would not be enough to see them overtake either side.

It was an all around flat display from Town, who came into the game full of confidence after a thumping 4-2 win at Rochdale. Despite dominating the ball, the Robins struggled to create much in the way of clear-cut chances.

The closest Cooper’s side came was a Ben Gladwin effort that struck the post and from a goalmouth scramble where Jonathan Obika saw his shot deflected on to the bar, then ruled not to have not crossed the line as it bounced down.

in general there was a lack of urgency from Town’s play until the dying stages when they were chasing an equaliser.

Cooper was not happy with his side’s display going forward and thought too many members of his side were not on their game.

“When you have that many players off colour you can’t really expect to win a game,” Cooper told the local media.

“We had loads of possession and a couple of bits around the box where we should have scored.

“We didn’t enough to win the game in the final third of the pitch. We didn’t do enough to work their goalkeeper.

“It’s very frustrating after the other night when we looked as if we could score at every opportunity.”

Yeovil’s ambitions were limited, but they defended stoutly. Cooper gave credit to the relegated visitors and accepted the defeat ends Town’s chances of automatic promotion.

“You know teams are not going to make it easy for you,” the Town boss added. “Yeovil are obviously relegated and don’t want to come here and get humiliated and they are entitled to do that.

“We’ve picked a bad time to fluff our chance. We know what we’ve got to do now and we know where we are.

“We’ve got to make sure we get everybody rested up, our chance is going to come through the play-offs. I know there is a lot of frustration knocking about and none more so than from myself and players.”

The Swindon Advertiser was not permitted to attend Town's post-match press duties.