ROB Hunt reckons the grit and determination Swindon Town showed in last weekend’s win at Cambridge United will need to come to the fore a few more times this season if they are to sustain a promotion challenge.

The three points courtesy of the 1-0 success at the Abbey Stadium have taken Richie Wellens’ side onto 20 points from the opening 10 games in League Two – a total that sees them sit fourth in the table.

Many of Town’s victories this season have been built on stylish attacking play but the success at Cambridge came more through stubborn resolve.

Full-back Hunt believes Swindon will need to show much more of that as the season heads into the winter months if they are to maintain their place amongst the division’s high-flyers.

“It has been a good start to the season. It is early days and we have still got a long season. Hopefully we can keep up that momentum,” said Hunt.

“We will definitely need that grit and determination.

“There will be some games where we won’t be able to pass the ball as much and I am guessing some of the pitches will be quite bad over the winter time.

“Sometimes we might have to grind it out and get some not so pretty wins.

“We showed last Saturday that we can do that as a team.”

Town had a few chances to pull further clear of Cambridge so Hunt was pleased that the back-line were at their most robust when those efforts went begging.

“I think we made it harder for ourselves than we should have,” said Hunt.

“We had chances where we could have gone 2-0, or maybe 3-0, up. We didn’t, so the back four, the midfield and the goalkeeper had to grind it out and keep the ball out of the net.”

Town are back at the Energy Check County Ground this afternoon as they host Newport County, and Hunt felt the win at Cambridge was the perfect response to their previous home match, which ended in a painful 3-0 loss to Colchester United.

Hunt said: “The Colchester game probably wasn’t good enough from everyone and we needed to get a result last Saturday to bounce back and show what we are about.

“We showed that and, thankfully, we got the win.”