SWINDON Town loanee Conor Masterson is backing himself to succeed at the County Ground and admits he relishes the challenge of being in a relegation battle.

The 22-year-old was announced as Town’s fifth January signing on Tuesday, but may go straight into the starting XI for the weekend’s trip to the Valley to take on Charlton Athletic with the majority of Swindon centre-backs out injured.

Getting thrown in at the deep end is not a problem for the Irish under-21 international, he says, after playing important games for Queens Park Rangers in the Championship over the course of the past two seasons.

And with a League One contest on the horizon that could see Swindon vault out of the bottom four with a win, Masterson is very much looking forward to getting stuck in at his new club.

He said: “I’ll be honest, I had a few different options, but I wanted to come to Swindon.

“I spoke to the gaffer and he really sold the club to me. I thought to myself: “do you know what? I’m going to go there, knuckle down and give it my all.”

“It seems like a good bunch of players, the people around the club seem nice. I want to go out there, show them what I can do and give it my best shot.”

Town take on a struggling Charlton side this weekend that has only won two of its past 10 outings.

As a result, Masterson believes Swindon must go there with confidence and back themselves to load more pressure onto the backs of a team that expects to be fighting for promotion.

The 22-year-old said: “I played at the Valley last season for QPR – it’s quite a nice ground – and I know a few of the players there as well.

“We want to go there and show the best of us. We believe in ourselves, the gaffer wants us to go out there and play football, but he wants us to show them what we can do as well.”

The former Liverpool man also revealed that the Town boss was after a young defender all along, hoping the carefree attitude of youth may ignore the pressure Swindon are currently under.

Masterson is taking nothing for granted in terms of starts moving forward though, saying he will let his performances do the talking.

Masterson said: “The gaffer said to me when I arrived that he wanted to go for a different type of defender – he wants to go more youthful, he said, and I told him I relish the challenge.

“I didn’t think about who I’d be up against for the shirt, I was just thinking about backing myself.”