John Goddard is feeling positive following an encouraging start to pre-season training over the last week or so.
Town have been put through their paces since last Tuesday as Dave Flitcroft continues to stamp his mark on his new side.
And Goddard has been enjoying life under the new gaffer so far and he feels plenty of progress has been made already.
“It has been good and we’ve made real progress already, so that’s the main thing for any player in pre-season,” he told swindontownfc.co.uk exclusively.
“You don’t mind working hard when you can feel the rewards, the benefits and the progress of it, so it has been a really encouraging couple of weeks.
“It has been different to last summer and I’ve really enjoyed it.
“All the players are buying into what the gaffer is trying to get us to do and achieve. It is a process so it doesn’t happen overnight and we’re working on different things day by day.
“Hopefully by the time we get to Carlisle we’ll have it all in place and we’ll be all good to go.
“It has been enjoyable so far.
“We needed to freshen up the squad as well and it gives us an opportunity to focus on this season rather than look back on last term, so that has been a positive.
“All the players that have come in have settled in really well and really quickly and they are all good guys.
“They are the right sort of people that you want in the dressing room, so it has been good to get them in.”
Goddard was struggling with a minor knock prior to the start of pre-season, but he’s now fighting fit and and has put any injury troubles firmly behind him.
“The injury is absolutely fine – it was just a case of me doing a little bit too much in the off-season,” he continued.
“I was trying to stay a little bit too fit so I just needed to lay off it for a couple of days, but I’ve been back in training now for a little while and I’ve not missed anything.
“It has been really positive for myself.”
Town open their pre-season campaign this Saturday away at Swindon Supermarine (3pm Kick-Off), and Goddard can’t wait to kick a ball in competitive anger again.
“I’m very excited and it is what you work so hard for in pre-season,” he added.
“You do all of the running and all the gym work but the main goal is to get back on the pitch.
“The first time I put a Swindon shirt on was at Supermarine so it will be nice to go down there to play and it will be good to get some minutes in the tank.
“You want to notice the start of something good in the first game of pre-season. You don’t have to be at the end goal but it is more about putting the early blocks in place to have a good season.
“That will include little shape things that we have been working on in pre-season but the massive part will be the minutes in the tank and getting the fitness up.
“Then over the course of the pre-season fixtures you look to progress every game, get fitter, get more minutes and alongside that your touch and things like that will come with that.
“It will be very much about blowing the cobwebs away on Saturday and hopefully doing well.”
