SWINDON Town manager David Flitcroft lavished praise on Melksham Town after his side claimed a 5-0 pre-season friendly win at the Toolstation League side's Oakfields Stadium last night.

Luke Norris gave the visitors the lead in the first half before the League Two outfit's quality told after the restart as Conor Thomas netted a brace to add to strikes from Scott Twine and Paul Mullin.

But Flitcroft took time out to salute his club's hosts and the facility they have developed at Oakfields Stadium, which the Town boss described as ‘second-to-none’ in the non-league set-up.

“I’ve met the people who have brought this forward and when you talk about heroes in football, I have met some tonight,” he said.

“These people started seven years ago with not much and now they have created this super centre for kids to play, 40-odd youth teams.

“This is an outstanding centre and you come to a club like this and you just want them to do well because the people who are running this place have football at their heart.”

The victory over the Western League Premier Division side was Town’s second in as many games this pre-season, having comfortably negotiated a way past Southern League outfit Swindon Supermarine last Saturday.

And while it is only early days in Town’s preparations for the start of their assault on League Two next month, Flitcroft is pleased to see the good work that is being done on the training ground translating onto the pitch.

“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,” Flitcroft told the local media.

“I’ve got a lot out of tonight and I’m delighted that most of the players have responded to what we’re trying to do.

“That ruthless mentality to go 2-0 up and 3-0 up. It could have been eight or nine, it really could.

“I keep talking to them about being ruthless in both boxes.

“In the first half, we missed out on three or four tackles, which is really important to me, but in the second half, everything was stopped at source.

“The difference in the play was poles apart but a lot of it is work I can see slowly coming to fruition.”