SWINDON Town manager John Sheridan heaped praise on his makeshift defence after the club picked up a rare clean sheet in the 2-0 victory over Fleetwood Town on Saturday.

The weekend’s shut-out was the fourth of the campaign – three of which have come under the 56-year-old’s stewardship – and helped Swindon lift themselves out of the bottom four of League One.

The Swindon boss made six changes to the side that collapsed to defeat against Gillingham a week ago, including the omission of centre-back pairing, Dion Conroy and Tom Broadbent.

Also switching to a back five, Anthony Grant and Ellis Iandolo filled in wonderfully for the Robins as Fleetwood were limited to just one shot on target.

Asked what prompted the change of personnel and shape, Sheridan said: “I think our biggest problem – and I’ve said it many a time – is the goals we concede. And even against Fleetwood, we’ve played very well overall, but their two big opportunities have come from our mistake.

“One was from our free-kick out wide which they’ve then broke on us, and the other one is when we play a risky ball into the middle of the pitch when we shouldn’t.

“We’ve been getting punished for those mistakes throughout the season, but we looked solid against Fleetwood.

“The five of them there looked solid, and you had Lee Camp with his experience. It was a good performance, but we’ve got to take this into a massive game against Bristol Rovers on Tuesday night.”

Central to Town’s excellent defensive structure on Saturday, Swindon’s seventh goalkeeper of the season continued a broad pattern of success for debutant stoppers.

Aside from the unlucky Connal Trueman and Joe Fryer, Lee Camp became the fifth gloveman to win on his Swindon debut this term.

And Sheridan was keen to highlight the quality his new goalkeeper possesses – stating he believes Camp will project confidence to whoever plays in front of him due to his long and fruitful career.

Sheridan said: “Lee has got the experience, and he’s played at a high level. He’s a talker, we’ve seen that in the few days that he’s trained with us so far. I think it will give the lads a bit of confidence as well, knowing they’ve got a quality goalkeeper behind them.

“He sees the game, and he’s always talking to his defence and keeping them on their toes. His experience will hopefully be very valuable for us in the final 10 games.”