Jack Bycroft stressed the importance of Swindon Town using the momentum of their 1-1 draw with Gillingham with ten players to push up the table.

Harry Smith’s header at the death created pandemonium around The Nigel Eady County Ground as he earned Town a point leading into the start of Ian Holloway’s reign, which formally begins on Monday.

The goalkeeper said that the goal was a special moment for everybody to share together and it is important that the team draw on that to improve.

He said: “It was an incredible feeling when that ball hit the back of the net when you slog it out, grind through the game, and when you go through 87 minutes with ten men and you are under the cosh and get few chances in the game, so when it goes in it feels amazing.

“I decided not to peel away towards the Gillingham fans and go towards the Swindon fans instead.

“It was a nice moment between all of us, I think that it was something that the whole ground needed and it was something that we deserved too.

“I think it is one of those moments that hopefully will be a turning point.

“I think that with everybody in the ground, they felt that lift and vibe and I think that we needed that.

“Fingers crossed that it can be and we will work really hard during the week and we will carry that on into Saturday.”

Bycroft added that it had been an interesting week for the players with the lack of clarity over who would be in the dugout and praised the squad for remaining focused.

He said: “Don’t get me wrong, the week has been a bit of chaos and we were not sure what was happening towards the end.

“We stuck together as a group and also a massive shoutout to Gavin [Gunning] and the rest of the team for having the game chucked on them and dealing with it really well.

“[Holloway] had a brief chat with us before the game and quite a long one afterwards but it was good and I am sure he is going to grind passion and results out of us.

“Massive shoutout to Mark [Kennedy], we all wanted it to work out for him and he is a fantastic guy but he is a completely different character to Ian, who I am sure will get a lot of energy out of us.”