DAVID Flitcroft hailed Swindon Town’s unity after they handed him a winning start as manager today with a 2-1 victory at Carlisle United in their League Two season opener.

Luke Norris’ first-half header and Paul Mullin’s poacher’s finish early in the second period put Town two goals to the good at Brunton Park.

Luke Joyce cut the deficit for Carlisle before the hour mark but Town saw out the closing stages without much alarm to begin the new campaign with three points.

The match was Flitcroft’s first in a competitive environment since taking over at the club in the wake of last season’s relegation from League One and he thought the die-hard spirit on display was a perfect reflection on what he has been trying to instil.

“Togetherness is the one thing I have been trying to promote from day one,” said Flitcroft.

“There are days where it looks disjointed but we have had a lot of days where we have looked together as a group and I think that was in abundance today.

“Carlisle have been building to get out of this league for three years and have not managed to do that so they are one of the league favourites, no doubt about that.

“We knew it was going to be a difficult task but we set our team up to be difficult to beat and we proved to be difficult to beat.

“We had a goal disallowed and every time we were on the counter attack, we looked like potentially we could score.

“Lawrence (Vigouroux) pulled off a couple of saves and apart from that and some long crosses that went in the box, I was really happy with how we shaped up, and the structure of the team was fantastic.”

Striker Norris was injured in the process of opening the scoring for Town, dislocating his shoulder as he stooped to divert home a low header.

Flitcroft was full of praise for his man for putting his body on the line and believes it epitomised what his team will be all about.

“His shoulder has popped out and when they have popped it back in, whether there is nerve damage, we are not sure,” said Flitcroft.

“We will have to get him to hospital to find out. We are hoping it’s not that and it’s gone in successfully.

“He was in a lot of pain when I saw him at half-time but it just shows that commitment to each other and commitment to the cause.

“It was a real aggressive run by Luke to get in there and score and sometimes with that commitment, you come off the worse, but that’s what I am asking for.”