SWINDON Town’s away schedule for the remainder of the season is going to be a ‘tough test’, says manager Luke Williams.

Town head to Port Vale this evening, one of 10 away games in the run-in which will see the team and fans travelling just shy of 3,000 miles – 2,910.4 to be precise.

Tonight’s match, which is attempting to be played for the third time after being postponed twice for a waterlogged pitch, is the first of a run of three away games that could go some way to defining Swindon’s season.

With just two days rest in between the home defeat to Barnsley and tonight’s clash,Williams knows that it is going to have an effect on his players and Town’s training has been adapted to accommodate this fact.

“It’s a huge test,” the Town boss told the local media.

“I saw a stat the other day at Sheffield United in their programme talking about the fact they are going to have to travel around 3,000 miles this year and Swindon will be travelling around 7,500, so there is a lot of travelling in this division this year.

“It does take a toll on the players and it can take a toll on the performance on the pitch but we have strategies to try and deal with it and combat the fatigue.

“We’ll be doing everything we can to go into those games prepared to win.

“It will be difficult to do too much (training between now and the Port Vale game).

“There’s a number of different ways of training.

“You can train by analysing things without having to necessarily do lots of physical work.

“Then part of the training will be to aid and speed up the recovery from this game.

“We’ll do as much as we can to get the boys prepared.

“I’m hoping that they are going to go again on Tuesday aggressive and ready to take the game to Port Vale and win.”

Williams was pleased to see skipper Nathan Thompson come through 90 minutes unscathed on Saturday and believes it will only be a matter of time before fans see him back to his best.

“It’s very important,” Williams added.

“I did wince when I saw him make that action (stretching for the ball) and I think in some ways it is good for Nathan to see that he can do that and his body is strong and ready to play.

“He stretched for one or two and he did come through it fine.”