The win extended Town’s unbeaten run, but manager Ian Holloway said he “hated every second” of the performance.

Swindon played against ten men for almost the entire match before Rotherham were reduced to nine players for the final ten minutes. Despite that advantage, Town struggled to break down a deep defence and failed to put players into the right positions often enough.

Rotherham’s Denzel Hall then halved the deficit while his side had nine players. Sonny Aljofree also had the chance to pinch an equaliser.

After the final whistle, senior members of the Swindon squad spoke to the players about the problems shown during the match. They also congratulated their teammates for securing three points.

Holloway said he was pleased with the response from the experienced players, even though he believes the performance contained lessons that must be addressed.

He said: “It is a learning curve, because they don’t communicate well enough, and they are starting to.”

“It could have been horrendous, as if their bloke [Aljofree] had equalised like he could have done, then it would have been: one, embarrassing; two, dramatic; three, how low would we have gone?”

“Whereas, now there are a few people laughing in there [the dressing room] now, thinking, ‘Thank God we got away with that.’”

“The senior pros who didn’t play have said the right things in there, as well, ‘That isn’t right, lads, but we still got three points.’”

According to Holloway, Swindon did not adapt properly when Rotherham lost a player, first going down to ten men and then nine. He said that failure showed there was not enough communication among the players on the pitch.

Improving that area will be important as Swindon seek to develop as a team. Holloway said players must organise themselves rather than rely on instructions from the touchline.

Holloway said: “If you don’t go through a performance like that, where things change, and you actually organise them yourselves, then how are you a team?

“You have to learn to do these things; you have to learn when you are in a good spell, you have to learn the numbers that you need to get into the next line.

“If you are risking it going there, you need to get the numbers to make sure that when it drops, you get on it, not just because you are already one up or two up that you don’t bother. That takes leadership, and that takes organisation.

“We were trying to do it from the side, and we told the people who came on, but they have not done it, because they are thinking about what has gone wrong for them.

“If you are [Joseph] Hungbo and you have just given it away, so what? I don’t care. Just go and win it back.

“Stop thinking about what has just gone wrong, and don’t let it impact the next thing. That is what Claire [Swindon’s sport psychologist] will be talking to him about.

“All of that is a lack of talking and a lack of understanding of the next bit.”