Mark Kennedy wants Swindon Town to keep their confidence high as they head to Eastleigh in pre-season this Sunday.

Swindon have won four of their five pre-season friendlies under Kennedy so far this summer, winning three games against local Non-League sides in Swindon Supermarine, Hungerford Town, and Melksham Town, as well as a late 2-1 win over Southampton under-21s last Friday.

Luke Williams’ Swansea City are the only team to have gotten the better of Town so far, although Kennedy said he had been pleased with much of their performance in their 3-1 defeat.

Kennedy’s side now have the first of two final tests of their pre-season preparations against sides around their own level, facing National League Eastleigh at The Silverlake Stadium before rounding out their friendlies against Wycombe Wanderers at The County Ground.

This is the third season in a row that Swindon have played at Eastleigh and they are yet to win there, losing 1-0 under Scott Lindsey in 2022 and then drawing 2-2 last summer with Michael Flynn and Kennedy will be hoping to change that as his side face the team that finished 13th in the fifth tier last season.

The head coach has spoken of his excitement at getting the first full week on the training ground this pre-season since Southampton as he gets more time to drill his style into his new squad and he was also keen that players started to carry the confidence of playing well and scoring goals.

Speaking to club media after the game last Friday, he said: “I said to the guys before the game, you have to look at this and embrace it and think ‘that is where I want to be, I want to go to the next level, what do I need to do?’

“This week finally gives us plenty of time to get some minutes on the grass, so next week is a big week for us and I am looking forward to it.

“It was something we touched on after the game [with Aaron Drinan] and I said ‘It is your first goal’ and he had a smile on his face and said ‘I don’t really care, but it is really nice to get off the mark.’

“I said you can’t have Harry [Smith] knocking on my door saying you haven’t scored if he is not playing, but it is nice to have forwards scoring goals as scoring goals builds confidence.”