Michael Flynn said the key to success for Swindon Town this season will be unity

Michael Flynn said that the key to success this season will be fostering a sense of togetherness throughout the whole club. Total Sport’s Joe Acklam spoke to him ahead of the season opener against Colchester United.

Swindon Town get their season underway against Ben Garner’s Colchester United at the JobServe Community Stadium, a ground where they haven’t won since 2016.

Flynn said that his most important task over the summer has been creating a togetherness within the squad that will serve them well over the course of the season.

He said: “You have to make sure that everyone is singing off the same hymn sheet.

“I have certain demands that I expect from the players: respect for each other, the staff, the club, and the community.

“I have never seen a group of individuals win a league or have success, you can do it with one or two maybe, but over the course of a long season, you need that togetherness and unity.

“Not only to keep your feet on the ground when the going is good, but also to get you through the tough days as well.

“It is a long season, and we will have good and bad days; we just need to make sure that there are more good days than bad.

“The players that we are signing have got to have that, because I have it and Wayne [Hatswell] has it, and the other players have all bought into what we are trying to create here and there will be no exceptions to that.”

Flynn said that ahead of the opener that three points was the only important thing, but that a good opening day was not necessarily a strong barometer of success.

He said: “I am not going to get involved in making predictions, because if you ask the other 23 managers they will all say the same thing, they want to get promoted.

“A good performance means three points on the opening day, but things are fresh and teams are still bringing in players and not everyone is on the same page.

“I don’t really know what my record is like on the opening day, I remember being thumped once at Mansfield with Newport.

“I don’t think too much about it as one year we [Newport] lost and we made the play-off final and last year we won 4-0 and I got sacked.

“So I don’t really think it means anything about what will happen.”