SWINDON Town have strengthened their backroom staff with the appointment of Dean Thornton as the club’s new goalkeeping coach.

Thornton arrives at the County Ground having previously worked as head goalkeeping coach at the academy of Championship side Queens Park Rangers, where he also played earlier in his career.

Town had been looking for a new goalkeeping coach since the departure of Paul Crichton earlier this month.

Crichton arrived at the club over the summer to replace Steve Hale but departed after only a few weeks, having been offered a position at an academy in the United States.

Head coach Williams is delighted to have Thornton, who also played for Wycombe Wanderers, on board and has been impressed with what he has seen from him so far.

“Dean has come in and has been working at the academy at QPR,” Williams told the local media.

“He came to us very highly recommended and has really hit the ground running and taken the bull by the horns and got stuck into training with the boys and made a good first impression.

“We are very pleased to have him with us.”

Thornton put Town’s goalkeepers through their paces ahead of Saturday’s match at home to Bristol Rovers but was unable to mastermind a first clean sheet as heavy rain forced the game to be abandoned after an hour.

Williams added: “I said to him that happens every week and he couldn’t believe it. That is one that he will remember for sure, his first game at Swindon; it rained like a monsoon.”