NOEL Hunt knows the Swindon Town squad has the capability and talent to achieve success in League Two this season – but only if players are blinkered into focusing on the club’s short-term tasks.

Assistant manager Hunt won three promotions from three different tiers in his final seven seasons as a professional footballer – proving he understands the core ingredients a team requires to jump up to the next level.

In 2012, he helped Reading win promotion to the Premier League. Five years later, he was part of the Portsmouth squad that climbed back into League One before helping Wigan claim a place back in the Championship the season after.

With that in mind, Hunt – who is number two to Richie Wellens at SN1 – has backed Town to go on and achieve great things between now and the end of April.

But that is only on the basis that players – and members of management – adopt the cliché ‘one game at a time’ approach.

And that could not be more appropriate this weekend when out-of-form Walsall visit the Energy Check County Ground on Saturday.

Hunt said: “We absolutely can achieve something special – but only if we worry about the next game.

“That’s important, we can’t look that far ahead – especially at this time of year.

“I remember being in this situation with Portsmouth and with Wigan. We were up there or thereabouts.

“We’ll work on Walsall and concentrate on picking up three points against them – that’s our most important aim.

“You don’t face Crewe or Exeter and reflect on those wins as being worth more, because they are not. A win is a win.”

Eoin Doyle has been Swindon’s key man in recent games.

The Irish striker bagged a last-minute winner against then bottom side Stevenage to record a timely midweek win for Town on October 22 amid the squad’s concerning blip following defeats to Crewe Alexandra, Bradford City, Newport County and Colchester United.

He then notched a hat-trick at Crawley Town last weekend to extend his lead at the top of League Two’s goalscoring chart to six.

Hunt vows it is how a team bounces back from a blip, rather than the blip itself, that defines a team’s levels of success.

He said: “Teams go through stages of five, six or seven games where they have a bad run.

“It’s important you bounce back as quick as you can and keep on going because the next game is always just around the corner.

“Within a week, we’ve put ourselves in a position where we’re only three points off the top.”