Swindon Town have appointed former Lincoln City boss Mark Kennedy as their new head coach, so what should they expect from the new boss?

Town’s wait for their new head coach is over as Kennedy was confirmed on Wednesday as the former Lincoln and Macclesfield Town boss signed a two-year deal at the County Ground.

The Adver spoke to Lincoln fan and owner of The Deck Ryan Whelan to learn more about his time at the LNER Stadium and how he might work at Swindon.

He said: “I am somewhat surprised [at the appointment], but also I'm not, as Mark has been at a club with serious off-field issues before and he knew when to walk away and I suspect he will have been given some reassurances behind the scenes.

“After the disappointment at Lincoln, I suspect he is perhaps just wanting to get back into work as quickly as possible.”

Following a season in which Swindon conceded 99 goals across all competitions, Kennedy comes in with a reputation for being able to build a strong defence and Whelan believes he may well bring a defence-first attitude to Swindon.

He said: “Mark has spent a lot of his coaching career in the academies of top clubs, this was one of the reasons Lincoln opted to appoint him in the first place. There are several players that improved greatly under his tenure, most notably Lasse Sorensen.

"Kennedy is not a possession-based manager, however, he does have experience taking over from one. His predecessor at Lincoln was Michael Appleton who set up his team to hold the ball and pass it around the back.

“Mark wanted to play a 'possession with a purpose' style, wanting to play the ball forwards wherever possible, whether that be fast attacking movements or long balls.

“However, this plan soon went out the window after a thrashing by Peterborough United. He then reverted to a back five and made the team hard to beat.

“He somewhat abandoned the attacking football and made us really hard to beat, which was great against the top teams who would come onto us but the lesser teams who would sit back would just either equal each other out or we would lose 1-0 in a scrappy way.

“However, we did go unbeaten against the top three or four in that first season as we often sat back frustrated them and maybe got a goal from a set piece.”