Swindon Town

SCOTT Lindsey, Town’s Under-18s manager admits that he’s pleased with his team’s recent results after a difficult start to the new campaign.

Lindsey’s side have beaten AFC Bournemouth and MK Dons in recent weeks and he believes that his players have shown that they can compete with the best at Town's youth team level.

“If I’m honest, I would say that MK Dons and Bournemouth are probably the best two youth teams at this level,” he said. “With that in mind, it’s pleasing to beat both – comfortably, I might add. The boys are doing well and we’ve shown we can compete again the likes of Bournemouth who are a Premier League outfit and MK Dons who are in the Championship. We also had an Under-17s game on Tuesday. Albeit we lost 3-0, at half time it was 0-0 and we were by far the better side. They came out (in the second half) and had a right go at us and we seemed to lack a bit of match sharpness. I played a lot of players who haven’t been playing in the youth team - a lot of first year boys - but they did well for an hour.”

He added: “We’ve got Newport on Saturday. They always throw quite a test at our boys because they’re physical and will have a right go so it’s always a good game against Newport.”

In an environment where development of players is key, Lindsey argues that learning becomes a lot easier when working with a team that is winning games.

“We want to develop players to have a winning mentality, play in the right way and the right manner. Also to be comfortable in possession but we believe that if we’re winning games, they’re working in the right environment and they can learn more through winning games. I think they’re in a healthy mind-set when winning and can take more on board. If you’re developing a group of players in a winning environment then surely that’s better than developing players in a team that loses every week?

“We’ve picked up recently and we’re pleased that we have. It becomes a long week when you’re playing Saturday to Saturday and it’s a long time before the next game comes around. It’s important that we win as many games as we can as well as teaching them the right way of playing.”