The course of the match was set after six minutes, when Jili Buyabu elbowed Jack Thomson and was duly sent off.

It was Thomson whose deflected strike from range opened the scoring, before Dominic Iorfa was dismissed for a last-man tackle, allowing Joseph Hungbo to score a free kick, prior to Denezel Hall's late consolation.

Holloway said that he took no pleasure in the performance, even if it was easier to stomach after taking three points.

He said: "That was the most bizarre game that I have ever seen in my life.

"Their first challenge, what was he doing? It was absolutely crazy. It looked like he meant it and smashed him in the face.

"Then the refs blew up and did that, and then that totally changed what we should be doing.

"The lads didn't flow into it because of who we had. We kept five at the back. We kept three centre-halves marking one. Oh my god!

"Every time we put it in, it didn't look like we'd score. I wanted to make some substitutions immediately, but it was a little bit difficult because Palms [Ollie Palmer] has only just come back. Did I want to take anybody off at that time? That was awkward. Maybe I should have put Joseph on a bit earlier. But we looked like we might have got one from a cross.

"It's testing every bit of my experience, and I'm completely exhausted now because I hated every second of that.

"Just keep the ball. Come deeper, keep the ball. Leave Palmer up there. Leave [Aaron] Drinan up there. Just come deeper. Bop bop bop. Get it, and then work it, because we could have done.

"But I'll show them that, and then we'll practice it, and then we'll have to do it. We're trying to learn as we play."

Holloway felt that Swindon struggled against both ten and nine men, but managed to get away with it.

He said: "Did we get the right numbers in the middle line? We had too many high up. We played it for, and we lost it. They only got nine, and they were desperate. They put forwards on to try and get something.

"All we needed to do is sit in with them, and then our skill would have been enough, to just get that middle line numbers right, and then we pick the ball up.

"We could have killed him, but we didn't. And then we made it look as hard as it possibly could be.

"We were lucky to do it in the end. It was absolutely hideous, but we've got three points.

"If you look at where we are on the table now compared to where we might have been if we'd only got one, then I'll take that all day long"