CRAWLEY’S visit to Swindon Town on New Year’s Day will be a spectacle far removed from the nauseatingly drab encounter between the sides five weeks previously, according to Robins assistant coach Luke Williams.

The 0-0 draw at the Broadfield Stadium on November 26 offered little by way of attractive football or goalmouth action as Town employed a 4-6-0 formation and shut up shop in West Sussex.

Back on home soil, however, Williams expects Town to be at their fluent best as they try to start 2014 with a bang.

“We were probably going through a bit of a stage of trying to get the team to understand that there’s a massive responsibility to get results as well as play fantastic football,” said Williams, reflecting on the November stalemate.

“We want to entertain the fans, we want to play an attractive style of football but we need this young group to understand that sometimes there’s a consequence to that and you have to take responsibility.

“When we played Crawley it was not a glamorous game but it was part and parcel of the learning process. I’d like to think it will be a much more attacking, much more fluid game this time around.

“It’s about the players’ state of mind at this club at the minute. We will try to put an attacking formation together and send the players out with that in mind. It’s a formation to be aggressive.”

With half the season gone, Town sit eighth in the League One table, four points off a play-off place. Williams has seen enough to suggest his side have what it takes to finish in the top six this term and he feels victory over Crawley and a haul of seven points from a possible 12 over Christmas would be a reasonable return.

“We’ve seen that we’re capable,” he said. “It’s not like we’ve seen every game and we’re nowhere near it. We know we’re as good as anybody but at the same time, when it’s all put together at the start of the season at last knockings we would have taken it then.

“Now we’re a little bit disappointed because our expectations as well as the fans’ are going through the roof. If we win we can be quite happy with our Christmas period.”