FORWARDS get used to forming working relationships with new strike partners on an annual basis, and Elliot Benyon believes he has seen enough in the embryonic stages of his partnership with Jonathan Obika to suggest the duo can, together, fire Town to safety.

Benyon netted on his debut against Rochdale 10 days ago and struck the crossbar in the 2-1 defeat to Colchester on Saturday, whilst Obika showed signs of a predatory instinct in front of goal during the unfortunate loss in Essex.

And with Exeter City next up for the Robins, who are in desperate need of League One points in the battle for survival, the former Torquay United striker expects he and 20-year-old Obika can deliver at a crucial time.

“He (Obika) is a good player,” he said. “Obviously it will take time for us to get a partnership but I thought we worked quite well together (on Saturday) and hopefully we can build on that at Exeter.

“We’d only been working for a day or a couple of days (before the Colchester game), so it takes time to know each other’s games more and more.

“But as soon as we do I’m sure we can make a good partnership.

“You’ve just got to adapt as best you can to the players you’re playing with.”

Having described his first performance in a red shirt as a little sub-par, Benyon was happier with his display at the Weston Homes Community Stadium.

The 23-year-old is beginning to ease into his role as primary goal-getter at the County Ground, and says with a little bit of good fortune, he can quickly endear himself to Swindon’s fans.

And he is convinced a similar level of effort and enterprise at St James’ Park this evening will go a long way to securing Town’s first win in 10.

“Although there wasn’t a goal there, which was disappointing, I’m sure the goals will start to flow for me and big Jon,” he said.

“Not every shot you hit is going to go in but I’ll do my best to score Tuesday.

“I know you don’t like to use the word luck in football but we aren’t having any at the minute and that’s part of football.

“You go through these things and in a couple of weeks hopefully our luck will be picked up and we’ll have plenty of points of the board.

“I know teams below us have got games in hand but then when you’re down the bottom points are hard to come by so I’m sure we’ll get something out of it.

“But if we play like (we did on Saturday) on Tuesday I’m sure we’ll come away with three points.”

Swindon spirits took a hammering at Colchester at the weekend, after Steven Gillespie’s last-minute winner packed Town off home empty-handed despite dominating proceedings.

Benyon agreed morale took a dent with the defeat, but was in no doubt the team unity in the camp is such that the Robins can deliver another sterling performance tonight.

“Things were a bit better (on Saturday), obviously the result’s a killer and we didn’t deserve that,” he said.

“We dominated large portions of the game and we’re really unlucky not to come away with three points.

“The boys were gutted. The manager said ‘You can’t do a lot more than that’. We’ll be up for it on Tuesday.”