David Flitcroft hoping to announce a further seven pre-season friendlies this week

Swindon Town manager David Flitcroft is hoping to fill up what is a scarce pre-season schedule this week.

As Swindon begin pre-season training today (Monday, June 26) they only have two pencilled-in friendlies, with trips to Swindon Supermarine (July 8) and Melksham (July 11) on the calendar.

Flitcroft has gone on record to say that arranging pre-season friendlies has been his biggest challenge as Town boss to date, given that most other clubs already have their plans in order.

The Swindon manager said in his press conference unveiling that he has tried to arrange matches against Portsmouth and the two Bristol clubs, but the former in particular looks in doubt.

Pompey decided to cancel a friendly with Cardiff as the two drew each other in the League Cup, which opened up a gap for Town, but it was filled by Harry Kewell's Crawley.

Flitcroft has moved on to other targets, however, with a fixture against Oldham possibly on the cards, as well as a trip to Ireland.

Speaking to the Swindon Town website, Flitcroft said: "We are really on the back foot. I think I alerted to it when I first came that the only problem, an achilles heel I could see, was getting (pre-season) opposition. That was key.

"We're trying to work on a trip to for maybe four to five days, out to Ireland and play maybe a Shamrock (Rovers) or a St.Pat's (Athletic) - good teams. 

"Again, that will help us later on, really help us understand the dynamic of the new players, it's going to be about 50% bringing in new players. Two games over there will be the key thing.

"It's not something that I usuallly do, when I go on a pre-season camp I stick to the training but we can do that before we go out and then that'll give us an opportunity to play two games."

As well as a potential trip to the Emerald Isle, Flitcroft is working on games closer to home.

"We're currently working with Hereford to see if we can fit something in there. I spoke to John Sheridan at Oldham, we're trying to work something with Oldham, they're down here playing Salisbury so we've touched base with John and hopefully we can do something with them.

"We've made a lot of inroads and hopefully by the middle of the week we'll be able to annouce possibly six-to-seven fixtures, which I'm delightful because whichever competition we play we'll be representing the football club and we'll be representing on and off the pitch.

"Certainly, the two games we've got already, it's about getting out there and letting the players understand the importance of representing Swindon (Town) Football Club.

"The opposition's the opposition, in a couple I might play the younger players, it gives me a great opportunity to see them in games. You can get great trainers, you can get players that train well but I want to see what they've got when we've got competition, at any level."

Update: Oldham Athletic have confirmed that a behind-closed-doors friendly with Cheltenham has been cancelled and a behind-closed-doors friendly with Swindon Town will be played instead. The match will be played on July 14, with Swindon as the home team at 12 noon.