MARTIN Ling was happy to let his team take the plaudits after guiding them to their first home win since the opening day of the season.

No Town fan leaving the County Ground on August 8 could have expected that would be the last time they saw their side pick up three points for three months. Fewer still would have thought they would find themselves in the relegation zone.

Yet 98 days later, as Ling shook the hands of his victorious players for the first time in his tenure as Swindon manager, that is where Town are.

However, the new man in the dugout did not want to claim victory as a part of a sweeping homecoming for a returning former player, that would not be his style. Instead he told called it for what it was, a gritty win from a team lacking confidence.

“It wasn’t about me,” Ling told the local media.

“We’re a team that is struggling in the league and I don’t think we need to have any fanfare about me coming back.

“There was 18 photos in programme and I thought it was a testimonial edition to be honest, that was enough to appease me.

“I’m not about that, people who know me as a manager know I’m not about the fanfare and getting out in the middle of the pitch. I’m about concentrating about what we do right as a team and a group of coaches.

“I’ll take the plaudits at the end of the season, not when I first walk into a football club.”

The Swindon Advertiser was not permitted to attend Ling’s post-match press conference.