Mark Kennedy said that he remains as confident as ever that Swindon Town will be competing at the top end of the league before long.

Saturday’s 0-0 home draw with Harrogate Town means that the former Liverpool winger has won just one of his games so far this season as Town languish in 21st place in League Two.

After the game, Kennedy was asked whether he felt that results might need to arrive soon to stay on pace with the ambition of the season but he remains calm.

He said: “I understand the question but it is a 46-game season, you don’t win anything in October and you don’t get relegated in October, which I really don’t see as being a problem for us, if I am looking down there then I am in a whole world of hurt.

“Ultimately, what you don’t want to do is give yourself a gap that is too big of a gap or a bridge too far for you and you get to a period where you have an outstanding run which comes too late, and we don’t want that.

“The goals haven’t changed with us and the achievability of getting to those goals we are very positive about.

“From my point of view, I will say that it is a 46-game season and from your point-of-view, it has been tough, I understand where you are coming from as we have played ten games now.

“Like I said, it is really fine margins and if we can turn some of those draws into wins, if we turn three of those five draws into wins and I can easily pick three games where we should have won then you would be sat in the top ten but guess what, we are not.”

Kennedy added that he believed if results had been different with the same performances then the narrative would be very different.

He said: “Where we have probably lacked this year is in the final third with execution but with what we are trying to do and where we are trying to go, I am really pleased.

“Football is about one thing and if you are winning games then everybody is going ‘What a team they are, they play great football, they dominate, you can’t get out, they pin you back, have millions of final third entries, 64 per cent possession, ridiculous.’

“But when you don’t win, it is a different view on what it looks like and I accept that.”