DAVID Flitcroft says the mental fortitude of his Swindon Town players should not be underestimated following the conclusion of their hectic run of games in League Two.

Town ended a gruelling schedule of seven matches in 22 days with a 3-2 victory at home to Port Vale on Saturday, making it a 13-points haul in that spell.

Flitcroft conceded the performance early on against the Valiants was somewhat ‘leggy’, which is unsurprising given their physical outputs in recent weeks.

The Town boss was therefore particularly pleased to see psychological attributes come to the fore as the professionalism of his players played a key role in the victory.

“On a flip chart and a tactics board it is 11 v 11 but then it is hearts and minds. It is all the work you do up to that,” said Flitcroft.

“James Dunne has not played in a while but he has kept himself in pristine condition. Timi Elsnik has come over and said he needs to come off as he is feeling some real fatigue.

“That is really mature for a lad of that age to say he is done and hand the baton over to someone else. Now we will hopefully have Timi for the next set of games.

“Dunney came on, Paul Mullin came on and Kaiyne Woolery came on and gave us an added energy.

“Port Vale were never going to lie down. They didn’t and we had to drag ourselves from a real difficult place and the lads did that incredibly well.”

Flitcroft was impressed by the defensive effort following a reshuffle at the back against the Valiants.

With both club captain Olly Lancashire and Matt Preston sidelined by injury, Chris Robertson returned to form a new three-man back-line alongside Ben Purkiss and loanee Rollin Menayese.

Striker Tom Pope has netted 16 goals for Vale this season but did not get much of a chance to add to that haul against Town.

“Tom Pope is very difficult to deal with. He gets assists and I think something like 70 or 80 per cent of their goals come from him. They shackled him quite well,” said Flitcroft.

“I am pleased with all aspects and seeing a group of players fight for the team, fight for the town and fight for the football club and at times it is maybe only me that sees that.”