Town Boss Dave Flitcroft has warned his side against taking Crawley Town lightly on Saturday.
The Reds welcome the Sky Bet League Two’s bottom side to The County Ground tomorrow (3pm Kick-Off) and are looking to extend their unbeaten start to the 2017/18 campaign.
Crawley have lost their opening three league games but Flitcroft is expecting a response from Harry Kewell’s side and he wants his players to guard against complacency and focus on what they do best.
“First of all Harry has gone in there as a top, top Premier League player and I’ve only got the ultimate respect when a former top flight player comes down to League Two and League One and cuts their stripes," he said.
“A lot of the top players either go into commentary because they don’t want to do the hard miles or they want to start at the top where they’ve got everything, six or seven analysts, a recruitment team, coaches and then a real infrastructure.
“Harry has chosen a path at the lower end of the football pyramid to ply his trade and I’ve got the ultimate respect for him for doing that.
“In terms of Crawley as a team they are looking to try and move the ball quickly through the pitch and they are very expressive with the way they play and they create a lot of chances.
“We’ve certainly been concentrating on ourselves this week and making us better and concentrating on Swindon Town and seeing how we can make our strengths better and how we can make our weaknesses better.”
“The league shape isn’t going to form for at least twelve games and we’ve watched two of their games now, they’ve gone with two different formations and we’ll be looking forward to them coming here Saturday and us putting in a Swindon Town performance that I feel the fans deserve.
“It is very naive to think after three games that a team won’t be fighting for their new manager, that new players won’t be fighting for their new club and it is not only dangerous but it is also extremely naive for anyone to think that they aren’t hurting at the minute.
“The players care, the manager cares passionately about his new job and they would have put a lot of work in to try and get off to a good start.
“They haven’t been able to do that at the minute but they will turn that corner. You look at Yeovil, they were absolutely smoked on the first day, they concede eight goals but then they win the week after.
“League Two is very unpredictable and it is one of those leagues, but we’ll give them every respect.
“We’ve certainly been concentrating on ourselves this week and making us better and concentrating on Swindon Town and seeing how we can make our strengths better and how we can make our weaknesses better."
Flitcroft has also praised his charges for how they have handled everything thrown at them so far this season.
“The group are coping with the challenges that are being thrown at us and the gauntlet that has been laid down,” he added.
“The players are committing to that and embracing that challenge. It has been a difficult start with the travelling and the fancied teams we’ve played, but they’ve been able to cope with that and they have adapted really well to that.
“We will just continue to keep striving to get better and that is my mantra. Whether it is game one or game 46, there are always improvements that can be made and we can always get better.”
