SWINDON Town goalkeeping coach Steve Mildenhall is hopeful next season will see the return of a football club that fans feel proud to support again.

The Town fan-turned-coach said he is desperate to see supporters back in the stands again, as well as the club hopefully returning to a winning percentage closer to the 2019-20 campaign.

Mildenhall’s side was able to feel some joy after the club ended this season with a memorable 4-3 comeback success against Wigan Athletic at the DW Stadium earlier this month.

But the former Town goalkeeper said one success was never going to mask the pan of going down to League Two at the first time of asking.

Speaking after the win at Wigan, Mildenhall said: “All I can say is that is that we look towards the new season, to a time where hopefully the pandemic will be gone and hopefully we can get people back in their seats, and give them a football club that they can cheer about again.

“We want to give people a football club they can get excited about and hopefully we can get back to winning ways.

“It’s difficult getting relegated – it hurts. It hurts some people, but it might not hurt all people the same. It certainly hurts me, a young lad who was given a chance through the football club.”

Town ended the 2020-21 campaign in 23rd after drawing just four games and conceding the most number of goals in the division – 89.

Mildenhall admitted the fact that his club drew so few games probably indicated the resolve in the team was not as strong as it might have needed to be to keep their League One status.

He said: “It was unfortunate that we weren’t able to get those few extra points we needed.

“I think when you look back on the season, yes we didn’t win enough and yes we probably lost too many.

“But if you look at the draws, we probably didn’t hang onto enough games or have the resilience to see out a game.

“That could have given us the few extra points we needed to help get further up that table.

“But those who are here will be working hard to make sure we put this behind us, we use this as a lesson, and none of us ever have to feel this frustration or pain of getting relegated again.”