SWINDON Town manager David Flitcroft says getting his players’ heads right will be the most important step as they look to get back to winning ways this evening.

Town welcome near-neighbours and League Two rivals Forest Green Rovers – managed by former boss Mark Cooper – to the Energy Check County Ground in the second round of the Checkatrade Trophy looking to end a run of three successive defeats.

Flitcroft conceded the mood in the camp was particularly low in the wake of those most recent losses – a demoralising 5-2 reverse at Stevenage in the FA Cup second round on Saturday.

The Swindon boss is determined to see his side put their best foot forward and arrest the slide against Rovers tonight but conceded he must first raise the spirits of his players if they are to achieve that.

“It will be about mentally giving them a lift. They are flat and floored, which I can totally understand,” said Flitcroft.

“They feel like they have let people down, which they have, and it is my job to lift them and make sure they come in fighting for the supporters and fighting for the football club on Tuesday night.

“I said when I came in that I want to win as many games as possible and the competitions do generate cash and that was something I certainly wanted to do.

“It’s another game we can be competitive in so it can’t come soon enough for me in terms of what has happened at Stevenage.”

Town have already beaten Rovers once this term, scoring twice in the final five minutes to earn a 2-0 success at the New Lawn in League Two back in September.

Flitcroft will not be reading too much into that match, though, particularly with the volume of changes expected in the two teams this evening.

“I don’t think we played particularly well but we stayed in the game well and got two goals that just signified that we were probably the better team on the night,” said Flitcroft.

“In this competition it is very hard to gauge what teams are going to do, certainly in the group stages. Wycombe totally changed the team, we totally changed the team, Bristol Rovers had many changes, and that’s the difficulty with planning against the opposition.

“We will have to concentrate on what we do and improve what we do and that will be our focus going into the game.”

Amine Linganzi and Luke Norris made earlier than anticipated returns from injury to feature in Saturday’s cup clash away at Stevenage.

However, Town boss Flitcroft thinks it is too much to expect the same outcome from Donal McDermott and his ankle issue for the wideman to be available again this evening.

“I don’t think Donal will make that one, he is probably looking towards the middle to the back end of the week,” said Flitcroft.

“Again, Chris Hussey might be training with us at the back end of the week but we are in the specialist’s hands from Sheffield United with that one.

“The ones that I want training with us all next week and being involved are Amine and Luke. Luke took an injection to get out there on Saturday, he was desperate to play for us but with the lack of work he has done, he wasn’t ready for a start.”

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