Lewis Ward believes that what Swindon Town have done since the end of last season will stand them in good stead to win promotion next season.
Last season was a disappointing one for Swindon, as their goal of promotion slipped away from them in the back half of the season and they missed out on the playoffs.
With pre-season getting underway next week, 18 members of last year’s squad will be coming back, whilst Mitch Clark and Stephan Negru have joined the group, and more arrivals are on the way.
Ward said that since the season ended, he had been on holiday and renovated his house as he looked to unwind from football, having not watched any of the World Cup.
Town’s goalkeeper said that the level of continuity Swindon have will be important in seeing them improve and fight for promotion once again.
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He said: “Especially with how unfortunately the season ended, it has been good to have been able to park it and move on, and start preparing for the next one, and hopefully we can make it a better one than last year.
“When you look at what has happened over the off-season, we have brought a couple [of players] in and let a few go. I can’t imagine they will be the only two, so hopefully we will get some more in to strengthen the squad.
“We fell short, so now we need to try to get over the line.
“When you are building something, you don’t want to be chopping and changing and having ten come in, and ten go out every single year. You want consistency.
“Hopefully, we can keep the core together and keep everyone, and I think that a massive thing going into this pre-season is going to be consistency and keeping everyone together, but just adding some bits in there.”
Ward also said that, whilst unwinding is important, it is important that Swindon learn from the experiences of last season.
He said that he felt not being able to deal with the pressure of the situation was a factor last season, and so having been through those things would help.
He said: “I think that we have got to use last season as motivation.
“A lot of the boys in the squad, especially the younger lads, won’t have had that experience before, and I think that was potentially one of the issues that we had going through, because people didn’t know what was actually riding on it.
“Some of the more experienced lads will have had campaigns where you miss out, and you know what it feels like, or if you get to the playoffs and lose in the playoffs.
“Those feelings that you get, you keep with you, and you use as motivation and start thinking, ‘We fell short, what do we need to do? What do we need to be consistent at? How do we keep moving forward?
“Hopefully, everyone will use that experience and learn from it, and we will come back stronger this year.”
