LUKE Williams says the onus is on Swindon Town to put the green shoots of recovery on display for the County Ground faithful tonight.

Town drew 0-0 with Oldham Athletic on February 18 before crucially arresting a six-match winless run with victory at Coventry City last Saturday, cheered on by a vociferous 853-strong band of travelling supporters.

Gillingham, who are 17th in the League One table, are set to arrive in Wiltshire for another encounter (kick-off 7.45pm) that could prove pivotal in Swindon’s efforts to beat the drop and the Town head coach believes that his side have a golden opportunity to hand a much larger contingent of their fans something to shout about.

Commenting on the Swindon supporters that made the trip to the Ricoh Arena last Saturday, Williams said: “They were absolutely brilliant – they really were brilliant – but they need something to shout about and we need to give them something to be excited about.

“We can’t expect them to just be in full voice and vocal when there’s nothing really exciting to watch, and there doesn’t appear to be a team in front of them desperate to win.

“We have to do that bit first and foremost, and then they will support us.

“That’s never been in doubt and I’ve tried to make it clear all season that as much as we can’t be affected by the fans’ discontent, we understand it, and that’s really very important to me, to let the fans know that we absolutely understand the frustration.

“It’s our job to put something in front of them that they can get excited about and they can cheer on. That’s why we try to pepper the goal with attempts.

“Earlier on in the season, fans are singing: ‘we had a shot’ in a sarcastic way, which was their way of telling us: ‘get forward and show us something’.

“I think, certainly against Oldham, we had so much attacking promise and we didn’t quite get the goal but we gave them more to shout about, and they did, and the travelling supporters watched us really aggressively go at Coventry for 90 minutes, and they really got behind us.

“The responsibility is with us to start something and for the fans to follow our lead.”