Paolo Di Canio is a perfect example of how quickly football can change.

The West Ham hero came to Swindon at the start of the season and lost four of his first six league games with rumblings that he may not be able to cut it as a manager in League Two.

Fast forward seven months and the Italian has just watched his side win eight league games on the trot to break a club record and secure their place at the top of the league.

Paul Cook can take plenty of heart from this as, despite having overseen three defeats on the trot as the new Stanley boss, he is promising there are better times to come once he puts his own stamp on the team.

And Di Canio was offering words of advice to the 45-year-old not to get too downhearted after his side inflicted Stanley’s fourth consecutive loss.

"Paul has just arrived and, in the second half, they showed that they wanted to play football and I said to him he will do a good job," said Di Canio.

"At the beginning, you pay the price if you want to play football as I paid at the start of the season.

"But then you get different qualities in and you get the results and then you start to enjoy it."

It is easy for Di Canio to say that now as his ambitious side are looking to go all the way into the Championship.

For Stanley, Cook’s dreams are more realistic – to get the Reds playing the way he wants them to, to be entertaining and to steer them back towards the top seven placings.

The current run has seen the Reds lose ground on the play-off spots and Cook is just desperate to get his first point on the board and kick start his reign.

But at the County Ground it was always going to be a big ask to do that – especially as the Robins have lost just once in the league at home all season.

In one exchange before the game one member of the media said: "Accrington are going nowhere, Swindon will win."

And while it was also the bookmakers’ view that the Robins would run out comfortable winners, it would have been great to prove them all wrong.

But instead the Reds were caught out with two early Swindon attacks – and that was effectively game over.

The Reds know plenty about Paul Benson from his Dagenham and Redbridge days – and the tall 32-year-old is always a danger as he proved on Saturday.

The last thing Stanley needed was an early goal and Peter Murphy had already cleared an Alan Connell header off the line before Swindon celebrated their eighth-minute opener.

Luke Rooney did the hard work on the left wing, crossed to the far post and up leapt Benson for the opening blow the Reds didn’t need and couldn’t afford.

The visitors, who haven’t scored for almost seven hours, did then have a good spell with Kevin McIntyre, at left wing for the first half, having a free kick tipped over by Wes Foderingham, a Padraig Amond backheel was pushed out by the keeper and the Irishman’s header then skimmed the woodwork.

One goal and Stanley might have had the last laugh at the media man.

But instead, Swindon once more upped the tempo and winger Matt Ritchie lashed an effort against the crossbar, Rooney was denied by debutant keeper Lee Nicholls and Callum Kennedy again found the woodwork

But the second was coming and, when the Reds failed to clear their lines and Dean Winnard ballooned a clearance up in the air, it fell nicely for Benson to make it seven for the season.

Accrington fans were then wondering whether to watch the game with the hands covering their faces as, on current form, it looked like the Reds would ship more goals.

And, with Stanley already short defensively and Cook bringing the struggling Toto Nsiala and the ill Winnard off at half-time, it seemed even more like panic stations.

Then just when it seemed it couldn’t get any worse, it did. Sub Bryan Hughes had only been on the pitch two minutes before he hobbled off with a hamstring injury.

However, a makeshift Reds set-up saw Sunderland loanee Michael Liddle and Murphy work well as a central defensive partnership while Nicholls continued to impress.

Benson did come close to a hat-trick with Nicholls stranded but blasted well over while Stanley’s on-loan Wigan keeper pulled off a superb double save at the end to keep out Raffaele De Vita and Ritchie.

But, much to Di Canio’s fury, Swindon did take their foot off the gas and the Reds enjoyed more possession, although they struggled to break down the league’s pacesetters.

The best chance fell to loanee Jamie Devitt, whose free kick was kept out by the Robins’ keeper.

Cook found positives in the second half show but was critical of his side’s lapses.

"In the first half we were poor defensively. Every time Swindon went forward into the last third of the pitch, they looked like scoring," said the Stanley boss.

"It’s not teams cutting us apart but our inefficiences as a defence. I won’t openly critcise my players, it’s something I don’t do, it stays in the dressing room. We win and lose together.

"But there were harsh words at half-time and we have made a couple of substitutions.

"Dean Winnard wasn’t feeling well and Toto looked a little bit lost in terms of what we expect.

"He has qualities, he is a young centre-half and a big strong boy but people were losing our centre-halves easily in the last third of the pitch and that can’t happen.

"We are not going to sit back and watch people not play well and, in the second half, we looked a lot better.

"We were terrific at times and took the game to Swindon and made a couple of chances to score which is pleasing but it’s just not going for us in that area of either box at the moment."

And that’s something he is out to put right.