SWINDON Town’s younger players need look no further than their own changing room if they want to understand what is required to enjoy a prolonged career in the game.

Thirty five-year-old striker Marc Richards celebrated his home debut as a Town player on Saturday with a brace of goals in the thrilling 4-3 victory over Crewe Alexandra in League Two, including a last-gasp winner.

Two of the other older heads in the Town squad, full-backs Ben Purkiss and Matt Taylor, have also enjoyed fruitful first seasons at the Energy Check County Ground, making 30 and 24 appearances respectively already this term.

Flitcroft says Richards, 33-year-old Purkiss and Taylor, 36, are the perfect examples for the younger members of his squad to try to emulate if they want to still be at the top of their game many years down the line.

“The reason why Marc is still playing at this level is that he keeps himself in absolute pristine nick,” said Flitcroft.

“It is a great opportunity for our young players to understand what they should do when they are in a dressing room with Matt Taylor, Ben Purkiss and Marc Richards. They are great leaders to have and draw experience from.

“You ask yourself why players are playing to a certain age – it’s because they start looking after themselves a lot earlier in their career.

“You can’t suddenly start looking after yourself at 30 and think you’ll extend your career. It’s something those lads have done early and I just hope the young lads will learn that.

“There is no secret that Matt Taylor can cross a ball like that. It’s not a gift, he has practiced and practiced and practiced. Marc Richards, in the training sessions we have done with the crossing and shooting drills, he just has this desire to score goals.

“It’s no secret that good habits on a training ground will definitely come to fruition on the pitch.”

Town’s victory over Crewe was their third in a row at home, giving another sign that the inconsistent run of form they endured in front of their own fans may be behind them.

By comparison, Swindon have been in superb form on the road throughout the 2017-18 campaign and face another away game tonight when they travel to Stevenage.

Having seemingly set their home form right, Flitcroft wants to ensure his side now do not go off the boil on their travels, having lost 3-1 at Coventry City in their previous away match.

“We had to look at our home form, it wasn’t good enough last year but we have addressed that and now we have got to make sure our away form is consistent, like it has been this season,” said Flitcroft.

“I wasn’t too disappointed with the performance against Coventry, I was with the goals, but the performance was quite a strong one but we have got to take a point from games like that.

“We didn’t but the lads bounced back and it was a very good three points on Saturday.”