HEAD coach Luke Williams says it would be foolish for the Swindon Town staff to crack the whip as they seek to reap the benefits of an extended spell with their players without the distraction of a game.

Town have a 10-day break between fixtures following Saturday’s 1-0 win at home to Bradford City in League One as their early FA Cup exit means they are without a match this weekend.

Swindon are next in action on December 6 when they host Luton Town in the Checkatrade Trophy and no more league points are on offer until four days later during the trip to Sheffield United.

The Town squad can head into their hiatus in good spirits after collecting four points in the last two games, although much of this season has been a story of struggle.

One solution to find better form on a consistent basis could be to ramp up players’ training schedules but Williams believes that would do more harm than good.

“I know people want the players in at six o’clock in the morning running up the stands and so forth. We have got enough injuries as it is and to be quite honest, this is Neanderthal thinking,” said Williams.

“If the players don’t play well, let’s punish them by making them more likely to get injured. Why on earth you’d want to do that is beyond me.

“I know this is a popular thing that immediately you should be punished with some sort of workout or ridiculous time schedule but dehydration is one of the worst things for a footballer.

“To be in at six o’clock in the morning is stupid. The games take a massive toll physically on the players and they need a 48-hour window to recover. To get them to punish them in physically is ridiculous.”

With no specific opponent to prepare for this weekend, Town can focus a solid block of training solely on themselves.

Williams says this week’s priority will be trying to correct aspects of their play that have not been good enough so far this season.

“We can try to concentrate on things that have become a trend over the first half of the season, things that have become an obvious problem for us,” said Williams.

“We can really try to spend time working on those things and also areas where we have not been able to create chances, areas where we have not been slick enough. Hopefully we can concentrate on those things as well.”