LET’S get a foothold in League Two and get our noses in front against Tranmere Rovers at the County Ground on Saturday.

That’s the message from Swindon Town boss Phil Brown ahead of this weekend’s latest League Two fixture as Town look to make up for a disappointing and frustrating 4-1 loss at Lincoln City last weekend.

It has been a turbulent start to Town’s campaign thus far – a dramatic opening day win against Macclesfield being followed up with a four-goal Checkatrade Trophy loss to Chelsea U21s.

A first league defeat of the season at Sincil Bank occurred last weekend while Brown’s men were dumped out of the Carabao Cup in the first round as Forest Green Rovers won by a single goal at the County Ground on Tuesday.

Despite this, Brown is hoping to unite fans come 5pm on Saturday with a second league win of the season.

He said: “It’s about piecing things together and I’m begging the supporters to understand that there has been massive upheaval at the football club.

“Let’s now get a foothold in the competition – the second division championship.

“I absolutely want to be in the cup competitions. I would have loved to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Swindon Town’s League Cup win – 100 per cent.

“When you see our shot count (from Tuesday) and then understand the opposition has had four shots in total, two of those being on target, and we’ve been beaten 1-0, you know something is right - but there’s certainly something wrong.

“We just need that little bit of luck.

“We haven’t had our noses in front for four games now, so let’s get our noses in front against Tranmere on Saturday and see where that takes us.”

Town’s opening four competitive games have resulted in only one goal from open play – Michael Doughty’s close-range header shortly into the second half against Macclesfield two weeks ago.

While Brown admits his side’s lack of goals from open play is a statistic to be concerned with, he defended his troops – pointing out a team must work the ball into the penalty area to earn a spot-kick itself.

“Absolutely it’s of concern, but you don’t get earn penalties by not getting into the penalty box,” said Brown, who will come up against former County Ground men Ollie Banks and Paul Mullin on Saturday.

“You’ve got to get into the penalty box and final third with quality and that’s what we’ve been doing.

“The final third is the key factor to any game of football, be that putting bodies on the line to stop balls going in goals or offensively when you’re wanting that calmness of mind.

“The ball changes hands in every game of football nearly 400 times – that’s in World Cup, Premier League and League Two level.

“If you’re not used to change and don’t accept change, then you’re in the wrong game.

“I’m trying to get my players to accept it – because there’s been a change in management, there will be a change in mentality, a change in game plan and style of play.”