A STRONG work ethic on the training ground by Swindon Town’s forwards with regards to their shooting focus has encouraged assistant manager Noel Hunt ahead of today’s trip to Oldham (3pm).

The loser of this afternoon’s tie is likely to be placed in a position where winning all four – or in Oldham’s case five – of their remaining matches must be achieved if they are to poach an end-of-season play-off spot.

In Town’s case, defeat at Boundary Park could drop them six points short of the top seven – while a win can lift them level with seventh-placed Exeter City.

The above makes this afternoon’s game arguably Swindon’s biggest of the season. And work on improving Town’s ability to finish chances has therefore been applied since Tuesday night’s goalless draw at Newport.

Hunt has underlined the general trend that for every five shots on target, one goal will be scored. He has coupled that with work on shooting in game scenarios.

And he hopes travelling supporters can see the benefit of that in Manchester this afternoon.

He said: “The front four have been really positive, and they’re all backing each other, which is a good thing to have.

“There are still some small things we can do better up front, but that applies across the field too.

“The good thing is the players aren’t accepting it, they’re coming onto the training ground wanting to put things right.

“We’re doing a lot of work on finishing – and varying that work as much as we can so when that chance does come, it won’t be unfamiliar.

“If we weren’t creating chances, that would be a big problem. We can get them so far, but they have to do the rest themselves.

“They won’t score every chance, but every five attempts on goal creates a goal.”

Meanwhile Richie Wellens’ return to Oldham has in no way changed his approach to the game, according to Hunt.

Wellens was in charge of the Latics last season, a year they were relegated from League One. Hunt said the 39-year-old boss knows only the present and future can be changed, and he’s used that mentality ahead of his return.

Hunt said: “Richie hasn’t talked about going back to Oldham, he is totally focused on what we do.

“You can’t change the past, you can only alter the present and change the future. For us, it’s about going forward and not looking back.

“We’ve got to focus on what we plan to do, we’ll obviously show the boys a couple of videos in the hours leading up to the game.

“We’ll try and impose ourselves on the game and do what we know we’re good at, the rest will take care of itself.

“Oldham are a decent team, they won’t be far off what we encountered at Newport on Tuesday.”