Swindon Town manager David Flitcroft has plenty of time for Harry Smith's character

Swindon manager David Flitcroft gave a special mention to Harry Smith as he made a goal-scoring return to the club on Saturday.

Smith, who is currently on loan at Swindon from Millwall until the end of the season, returned to his parent club for a week for what was previously described only as "personal reasons".

When Smith scored the second in a 2-0 win over Cambridge, the last time he played for the club prior to Saturday, the towering forward revealed a t-shirt that read: "That's for you Dad."

Striker Smith scored the only goal of the game in Swindon's 1-0 win over Wycombe on Saturday, but could have had more as he troubled Chairboys keeper Scott Brown twice more in the first half and shot wide in the second.

When Flitcroft was asked post-match whether Smith's issues are behind him now, the Town boss lauded Smith's strength of character and confirmed that Smith's dad being ill is the reason he briefly returned home to Millwall.

"Yes, his dad's been poorly. He (Smith) is a young boy," Flitcroft began.

"Because he's six-foot [four], we all think he's this man with 200 games under his belt - he's not. 

"We've supported him with that, Millwall have been fantastic. Harry's very lucky to have a manager like Neil Harris, who I think is a top, top manager and we worked on it together to make sure Harry was in a good place mentally.

"He played a game on Monday for the [under] 23s, played 90 minutes, again that was organised from myself and Neil, he's got his 90 minutes under his belt."

On his return, Smith played the full 90 minutes despite not being fully fit and Flitcroft insisted he only kept the 22-year-old on out of necessity.

"He said [he] couldn't run anymore with 10 minutes to go but I need him on for set-pieces at the end, they [Wycombe] threw everything at us and I needed Harry to stay on the pitch. I thought he was excellent."

Smith's goal was a special one too, as he shrugged off his marker and side-foot volleyed an impressive effort off the far post following a left-sided Matty Taylor cross.

"It was a good finish," Flitcroft agreed.

"It was probably harder to take that one than the two-stroke-three other ones. The one where he's got rid of Adam El-Abd and Adam was quite erratic on his tackle - he obviously didn't know that Adam was down and he could've raced away and galloped away.

"He's quick, on the GPS track. He moves quick for a six-foot-[four] guy, he moves really quick. I thought he was away but he's just rushed it."