Town Boss Dave Flitcroft was satisfied with his squad following another good night at the office on Tuesday.
Goals from Luke Norris, Scott Twine, Paul Mullin and a Conor Thomas double handed the Reds a convincing 5-0 victory away at Melksham Town last night.
Town have now scored twelve goals in two pre-season games and Flitcroft felt there were plenty of positives to take from his side’s latest run-out.
“You’re on a hiding to nothing sometimes coming to these games because you do it with all the best intentions and we had a real plan of what we wanted it to look like in terms of game minutes and data,” he told members of the local press.
“Over the 90 minutes I’m quite happy with certain aspects but there is so much to work on, which I’m looking forward to doing.
“Every half gives you something to work on and every time a ball is played there is something else you want to work with, so I’ve got a lot out of tonight.
“I’m delighted most of the players are responding to what we want to do.
“I keep talking to the players about being ruthless in both boxes and it is really important. We missed three or four tackles in the first-half and we stopped everything at source in the second-half, so the difference in the play was poles apart and a lot of it is work I can see slowly coming to fruition.”
There were plenty of positives to take from last night’s game and Flitcroft had particular praise for Conor Thomas and Scott Twine.
“Conor is someone from day one that I wanted to work with,” he added.
“There are no restrictions in football, you take the handbrake off and we’re lucky to be doing what we’re doing.
“His mind-set is changing and there is a calmness to him when he gets into the opposition’s box.
“I keep talking to the players about being ruthless in both boxes and it is really important. We missed three or four tackles in the first-half and we stopped everything at source in the second-half, so the difference in the play was poles apart and a lot of it is work I can see slowly coming to fruition.”
“He’s got lovely feet, he’s got real soft feet to be able to finish and you’ve got to have a composed head when you are in those situations and Conor displays that.
“He probably wasn’t allowed to get forward as much as he could last season, but he’s phenomenal on the running stats and he’s the fittest player at the club.
“He’ll cause people problems because it is difficult to track that late run at times.
“Scott Twine really impressed me last night. When you look at him, he almost looks as though he’ll get bullied and dominated but he doesn’t, he keeps getting back up and going again.
“He’s an absolute nightmare for any defender and I’m delighted with him. He had a good night.
“He plays with enthusiasm and energy and he’s what I believe football is about.”
