SWINDON Town midfielder Matty Palmer believes a switch in formation and personnel by manager John Sheridan has seen the team play much more efficient football over the past two games.

Following a disappointing 3-1 defeat to Gillingham last month, the Town boss opted to drop centre-backs Tom Broadbent and Dion Conroy in favour of a five-man defence that featured just one recognised central defender.

With combative midfielder Anthony Grant and technically proficient Ellis Iandolo in the centre of defence, Palmer reckons Town have been able to play more football on the ground – therefore making more chances and scoring more goals.

He said: “We’ve kept the ball better than we had in previous games recently, and the more you have the ball, the more chances you’re going to create.

“We’ve scored goals throughout the whole season, so that’s not something that we’ve not done – it’s just the last two games where we’ve kept the ball better, took our chances and not conceded which has allowed us to have a platform in the game.

“And the midfielders in defence are obviously comfortable on the ball, so they’re used to bringing the ball out.

“As a midfielder, you know you can make an angle and you’ll receive it rather than the ball going over your head a bit more - that helps us create more chances.”

The mini revival in late March, brought about by wins over Fleetwood Town and Bristol Rovers, saw Swindon push up out of the bottom four in League One and into 19th – a single point above the dotted line.

With nine games to go, Town still have four of the bottom seven to play, and Palmer said the squad is fully aware of the magnitude of the run-in.

But the 26-year-old said they must not get distracted by ifs and buts – instead, each player should focus on doing their job well and the rest will fall into place.

Palmer said: “None of us want a relegation on our C.V. Personally I’ve never had a relegation, so I want to ensure I still only ever have promotions on my C.V.

“I know all the other lads feel the same, so we’ve got to go into the upcoming games and try to get the points on the board as quickly as possible.

“The pressure of going for promotion and avoiding relegation is quite similar.

“But as a player, you’ve got to just concentrate on doing your own job rather than thinking of the bigger picture. If you take it game by game, things will take care of themselves.”