DAVID Flitcroft praised the iron will of his Swindon Town troops for rounding off their hectic spell of League Two fixtures with a battling late 3-2 win at home to Port Vale.

Saturday’s match at the Energy Check County Ground concluded a run of seven games in 22 days for Town, the previous four of which had been against sides currently in the play-off places or better.

The visit of Vale at SN1 suggested Town might be in for a bit of respite as the visitors had collected three points from seven games in 2018.

However, Flitcroft never doubted that the Valiants would provide stiff opposition as they look to haul themselves away from the lower reaches of the table.

The Town boss conceded that the recent work-load has taken its toll on his players but added that Paul Mullin’s dramatic late winner with two minutes to go proved the resolve within the camp.

“I probably would have settled for a point,” said Flitcroft.

“We have not gone too overboard about what the lads have gone through over the last month but over the last seven games, we have got 13 points.

“There was a lot of travelling, a lot of planning, a lot of meetings, a lot of work on the training ground and a lot of games against probably the in-form teams.

“We looked quite leggy on Thursday and certainly looked leggy yesterday and I thought it was quite a leggy performance at times, certainly at the start.

“But the lads dug in and I keep talking about the squad and the importance of everyone keeping themselves right and in the best possible shape. When they have had to be called upon, as a squad they have backed each other up and it was a real fighting performance.

“Some disrespectful people say it is only Port Vale but I respect every opposition, I respect every club.

“Neil Aspin and Gary Brabin work as hard as anyone to get results and they came here fighting and put their bodies on the line.

“They have got some real strong characters and leaders. Tom Pope, Danny Pugh, Michael Tonge, those players hate getting beat.

“It was going to be a difficult afternoon, we knew that, but the three points is massive.”

Flitcroft also revealed that Town have been hit by a major defensive blow with Matt Preston expected to miss the remainder of the season because of injury.

Centre-back Preston suffered a knee problem in last weekend’s 1-0 win at home to Mansfield Town and missed the subsequent trip to Wycombe Wanderers on Tuesday.

The 22-year-old went for a scan in the back-end of last week and did not return to the team against the Valiants.

Flitcroft revealed the injury is a serious one and he believes it will rule Preston out for the remainder of the campaign.

“We had got bad news on Matt. He doesn’t need an operation but the injury has probably ended his season,” said Flitcroft.

“I am absolutely gutted because he was in really good form and it is just another loss that we have got to move on very quickly from. We will keep looking forward to an exciting future.”