NEW Swindon Town manager David Flitcroft has praised Lee Power’s “bravery’’ for admitting the mistakes of his chairmanship of the club as the pair look to plot the route back into League One.

Two years ago, Town were one win away from promotion to the Championship but their fortunes have since faded and a disastrous 2016/17 season resulted in the club being relegated to League Two, leading to Luke Williams being dismissed as head coach, with Flitcroft appointed as the boss on Monday.

The club’s transfer policy has also been a source of frustration for many supporters and Town could feasibly be left without any of the matchday 18 from the 2015 League One play-off final in their squad from July 1.

Power has traditionally overseen Town’s recruitment but that responsibility will now be handed over to Flitcroft, with that one of the key aspects of the former Bury and Barnsley chief’s decision to accept the job.

Town have just 10 players contracted beyond the end of this month, while deals have been offered to five others, including club captain Nathan Thompson.

Flitcroft is not daunted by the task of having to plan a complete overhaul and is sure that of those players that are left, there will be no hangover from last season’s disappointment.

“The first thing Lee said to me was: ‘We’ve got things wrong and I’m the first to admit we got things wrong’. That takes bravery to come out and tell me that,” said Flitcroft.

“That’s the level and depth that our conversation went into. When you get relegated, something has gone wrong.

“Then we went into the why and what we do and how we do things different and what we’re looking at in terms of recruitment.

“A lot of people have spoken, saying: ‘Wow, you’ve got a full squad to rebuild’, but I only see that as a positive.

“There is no aftermath of last season in there, there is no one sulking around and there is only a skeleton squad to work with.

“We’ve got some good quality to work with but I want to see what is under the shirt.”

Flitcroft is expected to be officially unveiled at the County Ground early next week and plans to have his players report back for pre-season by the end of the month ahead of the start of the new campaign on August 5.

The 43-year-old will roll out an intense summer schedule, which will help him get to grips with the character of this squad.

Flitcroft added: “I have got a tough programme for players and I want to make and break those players and I want to see if they want to die in a Swindon shirt. I have got six weeks to do that over a very tough pre-season.”