SWINDON Town manager David Flitcroft praised his side’s showing in the opening 25 minutes at Morecambe to set the foundations for an important win away from home in League Two.

Donal McDermott showed a moment of quality to break the deadlock in the 13th minute to capitalise on the team’s early dominance at the Globe Arena, a period of the game that Flitcroft felt most teams in the league would have struggled to handle.

However, Town invited their hosts back into proceedings as the half wore on, with a few scares for the defence, but with the game closing out in the second half and Morecambe throwing the kitchen sink at the Swindon box, players put their body on the line to ensure the three points returned to Wiltshire, much to Flitcroft’s satisfaction.

“I’m absolutely delighted,” he said.

“Coming here, we had to be structurally good.

“For the first 25 minutes, whoever we’d played, I think we would have got on top of them.

“We did everything right.

“Then we gave Morecambe a bit of momentum by doing a couple of things that were sloppy and it gives the crowd a lift.

“We got to half-time in a nice, controlled manner and in the second half, we really went about our business.

“At 1-0, if you don’t finish it off, then a Jim Bentley team doesn’t lie down.

“They epitomise Jim’s values and his spirit and they’re not going to lie down.

“For the last five or 10 minutes, we had to weather another storm but that is part and parcel of the ugly side of football that nobody wants to talk about.

“It’s absolutely imperative that we can do that and we can shut games down.

“They’ve thrown everything at us and become very much DIY by throwing so many bodies forward and you’ve got to contain it.

“In League Two, teams will find any way to win a football match and that’s what Morecambe did but from our lads, to a man, it was a real squad effort and a team effort.”

Goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux returned to action for Town, having missed Tuesday night’s Checkatrade Trophy game with an Achilles injury, with Flitcroft admitting it was touch and go whether he could be involved.

However, John Goddard remains out with a foot injury sustained on the first day of the season and will be assessed further in the coming week.

“We had an X-ray (for Vigouroux) and then had another X-ray on Thursday and he had pain killers to get through the pain and his come through it,” explained Flitcroft.

“All credit to Lawrence where he has kept his clean sheet, and I’m telling him that’s the most important.

“(John) wasn’t close to playing. It has plateaued out now. He is on the grass with Chris Neville and has done another good session today.

“It’s just that contact now and he’s doing quite a bit of work on his own but it’s not the same.”