Swindon Town boss David Flitcroft impressed by Johnny Goddard's first performance post-injury

Johnny Goddard's first action since injury made his manager David Flitcroft happy as Swindon beat Cambridge 2-0 on Saturday.

Prior to his 30-minute spell on as a substitute on Saturday, Goddard had not played for Swindon since the opening-day win at Carlisle United, where he came off after suffering a foot injury.

It was originally only supposed to keep him out for a short period of time, but it ended up taking a lot longer to recover, and the weekend was the first time Goddard made the squad post-Carlisle despite being declared fit last week.

Goddard signed on an undisclosed fee from non-league Woking last summer and scored three goals as Swindon were relegated from League One last season. Saturday was Goddard's 50th appearance for the club in all competitions.

Speaking after the final whistle, Flitcroft said: 

"I put Johnny G on to give us a bit of calmness. I felt that it turned into a real League Two dogfight and became basketball and Johnny just slowed us down a little bit, calmed the game down, that allowed Keshi (Anderson) to influence the game a little bit more.

"He's a player that's been waiting in the wings, he's been disappointed that his injury lasted so long, (he's been) a real frustrated figure over the past couple of weeks and it's no fault of anyone's the injury took so long, but I just felt today, certainly at home, that he could definitely have an impact. 

"He brought a calmness today and big H (Harry Smith) put an unbelievable shift in up front and it was a fantastic finish.

"He's been really good in training, the more he plays, the more he trains he'll get more confidence, I'm delighted with him, he doesn't look like a tough nut but he's a tough lad, that probably comes from his non-league background. 

"I thought he was excellent, he came on the pitch and retained the ball fantastically well, it's what he does, he's a football thinker."