SKIPPER Olly Lancashire accepts that making mistakes is all part of the education for a young professional footballer and believes the Swindon Town squad now boasts the experienced ‘spine’ required to help see their youthful tyros over the promotion line this season.

The captain backed forward Keshi Anderson to shrug off the error that led to the crucial third goal in Saturday’s 3-1 defeat to Coventry City and has pointed to the January arrival of ‘promotion veterans’ Ollie Banks and Marc Richards as an important step in setting Town up for a big push to the top.

Anderson, whose permanent transfer from Premier League side Crystal Palace was agreed last week, was left crestfallen after being dispossessed while trying to play out near his own penalty area at the Ricoh Arena on Saturday, the hosts retrieving possession to set up Marc McNulty for the late goal that killed off the visitors’ prospects.

Lancashire reckons such a moment can be put down to youthful exuberance but reckons the blend in David Flitcroft’s squad is shaping up well for the challenges ahead.

“Keshi is a confident lad and when you’re young, you’ve got to accept that sometimes they are going to do things in the wrong areas,’’ said the defender.

“But Keshi will pick himself up, there is no problem there and I’m sure it won’t happen again.’’

Banks has already looked the part in two appearances since his loan arrival from Oldham Athletic, while Richards made only a cameo appearance at Coventry after his free-transfer arrival, but at 35 boasts plenty of career experience.

“Banksy has come in and had two games and you can see his quality and Rico has come in,’’ added Lancashire.

“He’s the sort of character you need around the place. You just have to look at his goal record and appearances at this level and the level above.

“When he plays, he scores goals and someone like that at the football club can only be beneficial.’’

He added: “Those two were in the Chesterfield that won the league when I was promoted with Rochdale (in the 2013-14 campaign). I can remember them being a very big part of that promotion and hopefully they can do that with us.

“I think we’ve got a very good mix, especially with Rico coming in. The spine of the team is pretty experienced, with a lot of energy thrown in and the young lads are very hungry to be successful and get that first promotion on their CVs.’’