Marcus Bignot said that Swindon Town are going to have to learn to love suffering as they step up their preparations for the new season.

Following two friendlies against Southern League opposition so far, Town face a different test as they take on a Championship side in a behind-closed-doors match this Saturday.

Bignot said that the match will be a very different match and will help the coaching staff instil a love for the defensive side of the game in the squad.

He said: “If we lose [the match] then it must remain behind closed doors and nobody will mention the score and if we win then we will open up the doors and tell everybody that we are three out of three.

“It is going to be a totally different game to the two we have had so far, these two have been very good in terms of what we have got out of them and there has been a lot of variety.

“This game will have to be a really good out-of-possession performance and I believe that we are going to suffer.

“I hope that the boys enjoy suffering and then when we get our moments, I hope that the boys capitalise.

“That will lead nicely into Saturday’s game from tonight [against Hungerford Town], Harry Smith mentioned it that we can just be a little bit more ruthless, once we got the second, can we go and get the third or the fourth?”

This game will also assist Mark Kennedy and Bignot in their desire to turn Swindon into the “hardest working team in the league” and develop that appreciation of the other side of the game.

He said: “We talk about being the hardest working team when we go out there and we saw the boys put in another shift physically with another 45 minutes very early on in pre-season.

“People can portray it in different ways, when you mention hard work people tend to think it’s running around and there is a mandate that they have to run around, but it is about all aspects of the game.

“With the two goals we attacked and counter-pressed really well with that work ethic and mentality.

“They are Non-League boys, they have been to work and come and played, they have that hard work mentality as this is what they love, sometimes professionals forget where they come from and we can’t have that here and we don’t, our boys have applied themselves really well.”