THEY may call Stamford Bridge or Anfield home but Fankaty Dabo says that he and his fellow up-and-coming loanees are not wrapped in cotton wool at Swindon Town.

Dabo is one of three Chelsea youngsters on loan at Town while Lloyd Jones is spending the season in Wiltshire from Liverpool, meaning that a host of players still finding their feet in senior football will play pivotal roles in Swindon’s attempts to avoid the League One drop zone between now and the end of the season.

Full-back Dabo scored his first professional goal in last weekend’s 2-1 derby defeat at the hands of Oxford United and the 21-year-old believes Town’s temporary recruits are fully committed to the cause.

“Everyone at the club’s been good to us and they don’t pull the wool over our eyes and say: ‘you’re just here to develop’ or ‘you’re just here to get games’,” said the former England U20 international.

“They make sure that you know what situation we’re in and we’re here to fight, and if we don’t fight, we’re out of the team, so we’ve got to make sure that we can do everything that we can to stay up.

“It’s definitely not a development group.

“Everyone seems to keep commenting that we have no experience but when you watch us on a Saturday, there’s a lot of talent on display.

“So it’s more about us seeing out games and showing our talent for the whole 90 minutes, like we showed at Bolton (a 2-1 win on January 14) that we can.

“Nobody really wants relegation on their CV.

“We won’t want to go down and it’s our livelihood as well, so we want to make sure the club stays in League One.”

Dabo is also anticipating an uncompromising battle when Town and fellow strugglers Bury lock horns at Gigg Lane this afternoon.

He said: “I expect a tough game because we’re in a similar predicament.

“I know it’s going to be tough and I know it’s going to be a fight, so all of us have got to roll up our sleeves and expect that fight, and win the fight before we can play football.”