Mark Kennedy said that Swindon Town will approach their Bristol Street Motors Trophy opener at Exeter City with the same desire to win as if they were playing Manchester City.

Town travel to Saint James’ Park on Tuesday night in the opening group match of their campaign in the BSM Trophy, a competition which they are on a seven-match losing streak in since last tasting victory against Newport County in November 2021.

However, Kennedy said that he will be going all out to put a stop to that and Swindon will be going for success in this tournament like they would any other.

He said: “I take every game as seriously as every other, whether it is a Premier League game or a friendly, you want to win every game, you want to work on things, and you want to see evidence of what you are trying to do.

“Make no mistake about it, we are playing the game to win the game; we have prepared for this game like we did for the first game of the season and like we would if we were playing Manchester City. It is a massive game for us.”

Whilst Swindon’s head coach was sure to keep his cards close to his chest in terms of which players might be involved in the game, Kennedy said that he would be picking a team to win the game.

He said: “There are multiple facets of what we look at; from a sports science point of view if people are red flags then they might need minutes or somebody has had too many minutes.

“I think Grant Hall is a really good example, I think he has had more minutes with us than he did in the whole of last season, for multiple reasons.

“There are so many conversations that come around but we have a squad, I think we have put together a really powerful and strong squad, but ultimately, we will put a team out that we feel can win the game.

“Exeter are renowned for producing players, the list is as long as my arm, and the bottom line is that it is a League One team with a League One squad on merit, so whoever Exeter put out, I would expect a really tough game.

“[Are we likely to see any academy players involved in the match?] If you come to the game tomorrow, you will find out.”