SWINDON Town head coach Scott Lindsey wants to instil a winning mentality into his players as quickly as possible following a 3-2 victory over Melksham Town on Saturday.

The pre-season friendly marked Lindsey’s first fixture since taking the top job, and it turned out to be a successful afternoon once an unnamed trialist fired in the winner late on.

Post-match, Lindsey revealed none of his players picked up any injuries either and they all experienced the desired number of minutes prescribed to them by the sport science team.

Reflecting on an ideal afternoon at the Oakfield Arena, the Swindon boss was delighted to see his second-half unit heed the half-time words he and his coaches parted with.

Lindsey said: “The message at half-time (against Melksham) was: “as much as we have got trialists and youngsters in, and we are going to be making changes in the 60th minute or the 70th minute, ultimately, we still want to win the game.

“I want to create that winning mentality within our group. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a pre-season friendly against our first opposition or the last game of the season, we have to try and make sure we win.

“I was really pleased with the fact that we went and won the game – even if it was against a team who are a lot lower than us. I think it’s important that we have that winning mentality going into the League Two season.”

And while making a winning start to his tenure was valuable on a superficial level to Lindsey, the head coach highlighted the importance of building up his players’ fitness at this point in pre-season.

Lindsey suggested those who played 45 minutes or more against Melksham will be unlikely to do too much more against Swindon Supermarine in a bid to protect their muscles and joints.

The Town boss said: “It was important that we didn’t get too bogged down in tactics and formations at this point.

“I think it’s important that we just get valuable minutes in their legs more than anything else so that players can get used to playing in a match situation against a competent and competitive team.

“We need to make sure that we manage their loads and look at what they’ve done in training to see who can play and how many minutes they can play. At this point in pre-season, that’s the biggest importance for me.”