AFTER the referee blew the full-time whistle on Tuesday night, and confirmed Swindon Town’s third league defeat on the bounce, I overheard someone say: “at least its September and not March”.

I presume he was pointing out that if we performed like this next March, with the same lack of quality or passion needed to win, we would be staring relegation in the face. And he’s 100 per cent right..

Apart from the opening 10 minutes, Bristol Rovers were superior all over the pitch, and what rankles more than anything else for a fan in a derby – the Rovers players wanted to win more than the Town squad.

Maybe that wasn’t the case for all the Town players, but it certainly was for some, as the game passed them by.

The turning point in the contest came when Nathan Thompson’s superb ball gave Luke Norris a glorious chance to seal the win and make it 2-0, but he fluffed his lines and his shot was easily saved by the keeper.

I don’t want to be too hard on Norris as he’s a young guy who was obviously hurting at full-time as he slumped to the floor and was probably replaying that chance in his mind, but lets be honest – if that’s Nicky Ajose last season, it’s a goal.

Norris may come good in his Town career, and of course I’m not writing him off, but when you sell your best striker for £800,000 and spend £150,000 to replace him, you’re going to reap what you sow at a crunch point in a game.

As the fans were filling out on Tuesday, some people were starting to call for a change at the top in the management team, claiming Luke Williams is starting to show he’s out of his depth, and he lacks the passion needed to inspire his side to victory.

But Williams isn’t from the Alex Ferguson mould. He seems a cool and collected guy, and that has its upsides and downsides in his job, but I think it’s too early to be calling for a replacement.

It’s unfair to judge someone in their job after such a short period. I can understand why people were angry but we need to remember he’s lost four first-team players in just one week.