SWINDON Town caretaker manager Tommy Wright says his team has lacked players who can drive others on to improve from day one.

With Town staring down the barrel of a return to League Two at the first time of asking, Wright highlighted the absence of a handful of players who can motivate teammates to excel when management is not around.

The Town coach used former loanees Eoin Doyle and Jerry Yates as prime examples of players who could raise the game of others, simply by way of their infectious personalities and love for the game.

Asked what the mood in the dressing room is like ahead of Swindon’s win-or-bust fixture against MK Dons, Wright said: “The mood in the dressing room is OK, it has always been OK.

“We’ve got certain individuals who need to train better, and they’ve been told that on a few occasions.

“When I’ve been at clubs where we’ve been successful, you’ve always got three or four in the dressing room that drive other players on because it can’t always be the manager and the coaches.

“There has to be that infrastructure in the dressing room that are leaders, and we’ve lacked that.

“Even though Brett Pitman has got better as the season has gone on, and Jonathan Grounds and Paul Caddis have come in and done their best. But from day one, we’ve probably missed those leaders.”

Town will require each one of their squad to stand up and be counted when they take on MK this afternoon if they are not to be relegated with two games to spare.

Russell Martin’s side are likely to see the majority of the ball though – MK average 64.6 per cent possession this season, almost seven per cent more than the second-highest team.

Therefore, Wright knows his team must stay patient when their opponents have the ball.

He said: “They are a possession-based team, and they do it quite well, but possession doesn’t guarantee you goals to a certain degree. It’s where they have the possession that is important for us.

“And when they have got the ball in the last third, it’s important we defend well, we’re organised, and we have that desire to get to the ball – to stop shots and crosses.

“They’ve got some very good individuals, and we’ll have to be careful about that, but we want to push our game onto them as well.”