DAVID Flitcroft has underlined his determination to take strength from “positive people’’ as he banishes any hint of naysaying surrounding his Swindon Town squad.

The manager refuses to entertain negativity regarding his side’s current League Two struggles as he plots their route away from their recent five-match losing streak and back on to their previous promotion-chasing form.

Amid their recent predicament it is easily forgotten that Town won six matches out of seven prior to the end of November and the County Ground chief has no time for any sort of victimhood among his crop as they bid to recapture that sort of status.

Asked what experiences he drew on when it came to coping with football’s highs and lows, the manager said: “It’s more from life. I’ve had some tough encounters. Only yesterday (Wednesday) I buried one of my best friends.

“I saw his daughter give a speech and I’d never heard anything like it in a church. It was absolutely incredible and a lot of people from the football world were there to see it.

“The strength I’ve drawn from her and the strength I’ve drawn from life but, as I keep saying, the support I’ve got from friends and family stay with me.’’ He added: “I surround myself with positive people. There is a negativity surrounding a losing streak, but I stay away from that.

“I don’t get involved with it because they are the people who always want to drag people down and create negativity.

“Misery is a man’s best friend. In every pub between five and six you’ll hear about how poor a man’s life is. I don’t spend my time with those people.

“I spend my time with positive people and when you’re in a bad run, you look to those closest and get out of it because we have all had tough times.

“I’ve always said the real test of people is who walks away from you when the times are tough, certainly my players and the staff are fully on board.’’ Flitcroft insists high-quality work on the training pitch will be the route back to success for his men.

“When you talk about confidence, it is dead easy for me,’’ he added.

“When you get out of bed in the morning you make sure that you are doing everything in a process.

“You can stay in bed and become a victim and you can not get up, put you head under the cover and pretend it isn’t happening, or you can face it. 

“You can make sure you jump out of bed, you can make sure you want to work with the players and they want to improve their form. 

“Form comes from the training pitch. Whoever doesn’t think it does is deluded. 

“You need to come to the training ground, enjoy coming to the training ground and enjoy doing the extra work, improving and getting better. 

“That isn’t just football, that’s life. You have victims but you also have people who are proud of their work and it is about instilling that into your working environment. 

“That is what we have done, we will continue to do that and will continue to channel everyone else’s frustration and disappointment into trying to come together. 

“We’ve got to stand up. There are 23 players who need to stand up and I need to stand up and get the staff to stand up. 

“When you are pristine in your work, then the confidence flows. When you aren’t doing the right things, your confidence will take a dip and we need to make sure that doesn’t happen.’’

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