Ian Holloway said that the Swindon Town players continuing to feel good about themselves will be key to their improvement to the end of the season.

Town’s six-game unbeaten run continued after Port Vale needed a late goal to snatch a draw against them to prevent a fifth win in succession for Holloway’s men.

Across the last ten games in League Two, Swindon are third in the form table and have lost just once, and Holloway said that was largely down to the atmosphere at the club.

He said: “I wanted to be on 40 points today and we didn’t get it, we are only on 38, so let’s try and get 41 next week and see where that takes us. That is my mentality and that is how it is going to be.

“If you want to be a good player then get good players around you; if you want to be a great player then get great players around you. I want to be a great manager and I have got to work on that.

“What I am trying to do is make them feel good about themselves and those little bits that weren’t quite right today, I am going to polish them up and let them go again.

“What is great is, when was the last time that I moaned about anybody not putting the right effort in or moaning about them coming on or coming off?

“Since that moment at Colchester, we have come alive, thank God because we needed to and I am very proud of what they are doing at the moment.

“There will be ups and downs along the road but as long as I can look at you and say ‘Actually they didn’t play well but they tried hard’ then I won’t be criticizing anybody.”

Holloway added that Vale had attempted to rattle them with the way they approached Saturday’s game but that mentality did not allow Town to fall for it.

He said: “I feel like we have come a long way because I am always worried about it going backwards because you have those dreams at night about whether it will ever be that bad again and I am haunted by Colchester.

“I am pleased with the atmosphere that the crowd created because they are seeing their team fight for everything.

“They were trying to bully us and we are fighting them off and I just think that there is a really good feel about all of us.”