SWINDON Town director of football Paul Jewell believes new manager John McGreal will be out to prove one or two people wrong during his time at the County Ground.

McGreal was appointed as Town boss on May 26 after almost a year without work following his sacking as manager of Colchester United.

And after landing a job in a league he knows very well from his time at the Colchester Community Stadium, McGreal has been tipped by Jewell to help Town bounce back up to the third tier.

Speaking on BBC Radio Wiltshire’s Talk of the Town programme, Jewell briefly mentioned some of the key reasons why McGreal was selected as the club’s manager.

Jewell said: “The year we got promoted, we played Colchester three times and they beat us every time.

“I was impressed with the way he set his teams up, and I thought he did a terrific job at Colchester.

“I thought he was very unlucky to lose his job basically because they could have beaten Exeter in the play-off semi-final and got to the final. If they won that, they would have been in League One with us last year.

“He’s hungry, he’s got that grit and determination to prove one or two people wrong, and hopefully he can do that at Swindon.”

Following Town’s final game of the season away to Wigan Athletic, 17 days passed before the club named John Sheridan’s full-time replacement.

Names like Robbie Fowler and Paul Tisdale were touted as potential candidates, but Jewell felt Swindon’s hierarchy moved with the right amount of speed and consideration before being ultimately convinced to appoint the 48-year-old due to McGreal’s sheer desire to take the job.

Jewell said: “He (McGreal) wasn’t a quick appointment, but in my view we had to do something quickly because the clock is ticking.

“The club sat down with a number of candidates, and it’s a vital appointment this one, but we just felt that John has good pedigree. He was really keen and hungry, which is a massive plus for me.

“A lot of the candidates we spoke to were very impressed with what we had to say, but John just had that little edge where he really wanted to come.

“He’s prepared to up sticks from his home in Ipswich and move into the area, which is a great plus I think.

“He ticks most of the boxes, if not all of them, and hopefully he can crack on and take us to where we’d like to be.”