SWINDON Town manager David Flitcroft says he and his coaching staff could not have done any more as they enter the final week of preparations for their assault on League Two.

Since arriving on June 5, exactly a month after Luke Williams had left the club, Flitcroft and his assistant Ben Futcher have set about building a side almost from scratch for the coming season, which starts on Saturday at Carlisle United.

Entering the club, Flitcroft had 10 contracted players to work with and has set about adding experience to his squad with the acquisition of nine players to date, as well as piecing together the pre-season campaign, which included a bonding trip to Portugal.

Now, in the last week of training, Flitcroft is gearing up for his first competitive challenge as Town boss and believes he and his staff have done everything in their power to have the club ready come Saturday.

“It won’t be for a want of trying,” said Flitcroft, who knows the work won’t stop once a ball is kicked, with him still on the hunt for further recruits.

“We’re doing everything in our power to prepare a team for Carlisle, all the staff have worked around the clock to do that.

“We’re quite a light staff, but certainly as a group, it is sometimes better working with a tight-knit smaller group.

“I’ve been at clubs where they have almost had too many staff, so you lose track of who is doing what.

“We know our role, we know our responsibility and we enjoy what we do.

“We couldn’t give it any more than what we have and we’ll just continue to work hard.

“I believe that anyone who is successful has an insatiable appetite to work harder than anyone else and we have got that in abundance.”

Swindon play their final pre-season friendly of the summer tonight at Chippenham Town (7pm) but, having gone through their programme to date unscathed on the injury front, Flitcroft will send out a younger looking side taking to the pitch at Hardenhuish Park this evening to keep it that way.

“I think it will be a young side against Chippenham,” added Flitcroft. “I don’t want to risk any players in this last week.

“I want to keep the group together now, I want to make sure training, Monday, Tuesday, is where I want it at from a tactical point of view and physical point of view and keeping the group together now is important.

“We’ve come through the pre-season together and it’s important that they all feel that they have got a fair and equal chance of starting against Carlisle.”