NATHAN Thompson is aiming to make a bigger impact in the final third this season after honing the offensive side of his game over the summer.

The Town captain, 23, says that Swindon’s players have been putting in the hours on the training pitch during pre-season.

Thompson is hoping to play a larger role in helping create problems for opposition defences during the upcoming campaign, which gets underway when Scunthorpe United visit the County Ground on Saturday.

“I think it’s been a good pre-season for us. We’ve worked tactically and technically and I think we’re ready to go on Saturday,” said Thompson.

“There’s a few new faces and I think we’ve come a long way since we came in six weeks ago.

“For me personally, it was all about the attacking side of the game. I was quite happy defensively and it was just about developing going forward.

“We’ve worked on a lot of patterns of play and a lot of shape work attacking-wise and I think I’ve progressed in that sense.”

With Town only making a handful of summer signings, full-back Thompson thinks that play-off finalists Leyton Orient provide the biggest example of what can be achieved with a settled squad.

But the Swindon defender is warning that League One new boys Scunthorpe will have an extra spring in their step following their promotion last term.

Thompson said: “You just have to look at Leyton Orient to see what they did last year by keeping a nucleus of players and I think that we’ve done that. We’ve only added a couple of new faces.

“We’ve got a young team but it’s a team full of enthusiasm and I’m sure that we’re raring to go for Saturday.

“As we saw from last season (Scunthorpe have) got players that can score goals and can hurt us if we’re not switched on.

“Teams coming up from the league below are always keen to impress and put on a bit of a show, so we know they’ll be at the races from the first whistle. We’ve got to match them in all departments but I can’t see why can’t do that and pick up three points and start the season positively.

“I think last year, we played really well away at Peterborough but we didn’t pick up three points. This year, we’ll go in to the season looking to rectify that.”