"Walsall wanted to keep me" - Matt Preston reflects on Swindon Town debut

Matt Preston impressed on his Swindon Town debut as the Robins won 2-0 against Cambridge and the ex-Walsall man was delighted with his first outing for the club.

Preston signed for Swindon on a deal until the end of the season last Monday following the long-term injury suffered by Dion Conroy which meant Town needed urgent centre-back cover.

The 22-year-old was thrown into the deep end on Saturday, but that did not phase the ex-Walsall man who played the entire 90 minutes and was named the man-of-the-match during Saturday's win over Cambridge.

As well as that, he was even named in the EFL Team of the Week.

Despite being a free agent when Town signed him, Preston did get a full pre-season under his belt with League One Walsall, and the defender revealed the Saddlers wanted to keep him.

"I did a full pre-season with Walsall, they said they wanted to keep me but didn't have the budget to do anything for me at the time and since then we've had to go our separate ways.

"I've been to a few clubs (on trial) before here and I had a phone call from the gaffer (David Flitcroft) last week and he said that he was interested and would I be interested in coming down. I said 'yep'.

"I've played against Swindon a few times in the past and I've always thought they were a very good club and that was one of the persuading factors."

Preston has also bought into the idea that promotion is the goal for Town this season.

"You can tell that already with the players that we've got and the performances that we can dig in. The gaffer's saying he wants to make the home games a fortress and with a performance like today I think that's definitely on the cards."

On his debut specifically, Preston said:

"As a defender, as a centre-back for a new club it's a very good performance, it's exactly what you want: a clean sheet and a man-of-the-match, it was a very good thing for me confidence wise as well knowing that I can do that.

"(The Cambridge strikers) were big strong units and you have to defend in a different sort of way and you've got to be a bit more clever with the way you go about things, we did well today as a back four."