Dan Harding feels that it won't be long before Saints start climbing up the League One table.

Speaking after the defeat to Rochdale last weekend, the left back was realistic in his assessment of the season's start, but admits that there is a lot of hard work to be done.

"It's not all doom and gloom and the lads realise that we're in an ok-ish position, of course would like to be at the top and looking down, but we're not," he explained. "We've got something that we want to achieve this year, and we want to get that right.

"It was frustrating against Rochdale, but we can't let that affect us. We've obviously not had the start that we wanted to have, so it's up to us as players to put it right.

"Every player tries to take care of their own performances and hopefully that can lead to good results on the pitch. We're playing well, but not quite getting those results that the performances deserve, so it's just a matter of time before it all comes together."

In the absence of a midweek fixture, Harding believes that the team will benefit from some extra time on the training pitch working with Dean Wilkins.

"He's brilliant. He's enthusiastic and he gets you going. The results haven't quite been what he wishes for and as players what we want, so like I say we're disappointed, but we are working hard to put it right.

"There's two ways of looking at it. Sometimes it's nice to have the game on a Tuesday to get it out of the system as quickly as you can, but on the other hand we've got a full week on the training pitch now to look at the things that we didn't do well in the game and put them right."

Saints travel to their Johnstone's Paint Trophy conquerors, Swindon on Saturday, and Dan is keen to avenge that defeat against the Robins, who have made a slow start to their league campaign, proving the tough nature of the division.

"There's almost been a drip down effect, where you've got Premier League level players in the Championship, we've now got Championship players in League One, so it is becoming a tough league, but we've got a very good squad here of top players who can play in this league and higher.

"They've had a few good results against us, from last season as well, so that's definitely something that will stick in our throats for Saturday."