SIGNINGS made in the next three weeks will have a major impact on Swindon Town’s hopes of success this season, according to manager Phil Brown.

Brown watched his side slip to a 3-1 loss against an experienced West Bromwich Albion squad at the County Ground this afternoon, a game which was split into two halves of 60 minutes.

Swindon Town’s first-team were on show for the first half of the club’s third pre-season encounter while a mixture of reserve players and youngsters played in the second half of the game.

And while retention of the ball and quick movement impressed Brown the most, the Swindon boss admitted signings he has in the pipeline over the next two weeks can push his side to the next level.

He said: “The next two or three weeks are about fine tuning. I’ve got to have a go at the mentality with regards to who is going to come in and provide competition for places.

“That’s going to be the key factor with regards to how much success we get next year.

“It was a positive first half for us, I don’t want to get carried away.

“It was a lovely hot summers day in Swindon and I expected West Brom to be able to move the ball.

“The surprising thing for me was that we had as much possession as them in the opening 60 minutes if not more.

“It’s what we do with it, that’s what we’ve been working at for the last couple of weeks when we’ve been working with the ball.

“It looked to me like we were ahead of them in terms of fitness levels. And it looked to me like we were ahead of them in terms of ability to retain possession.”

Following wins at Cirencester Town and Melksham Town, today’s game presented Swindon with their first higher-tier challenge of pre-season with another tough fixture against Portsmouth scheduled for next week.

It is unknown yet whether next week’s fixture will follow the same format, however Brown touched on his liking to the 120-minute game – believing it was a successful day for all involved.

He said: “With a 60-minute game you have to prepare for it like it’s two games as we have to get two squads ready.

“That in itself is time consuming. But playing two games of 60 minutes does kill two birds with one stone.

“It is a very good way of playing a pre-season game and it was a success. All of the players that were fit and able from 17 and upwards managed to get 60 minutes under their belt.

“The first-team got a nice and even game against their first team which was made up of mostly Premier League footballers from last year.”

Town are next in action on Tuesday night against Chippenham Town (7.45pm).