Swindon Town head coach Mark Kennedy said that he felt getting the psychological side of the game right was pivotal to having success on the field.

In a statement responding to TrustSTFC this week, Clem Morfuni mentioned that he felt “personal attacks” had gone too far against both players and staff at the club and would impact their performance.

Kennedy himself said after the 0-0 draw at The Nigel Eady County Ground against Harrogate Town last weekend that he felt boos from the crowd would not aid the displays of the team.

Asked about his opinions on the mental side of the game ahead of Town’s trip to Cheltenham Town this weekend, Kennedy said that it was something he massively believed in getting right.

He said: “I am not on social media and if you are on it and you want bad news then it is really easy to find.

“In terms of leadership and management, it is something we do as a collective daily and I have very personal relationships with my squad.

“We have got a very open-door, friendly policy for our coaches with Steve [Mildenhall], Gav [Gunning], and Marcus [Bignot] in particular.

“I often hear that people say they hate the word family in business and work and things like that but I see us as being a big family so we are constantly supporting each other 24/7.

“In football, we talk about technical, tactical, and physical but the mental for me is one of the biggest things.

“Unfortunately, the lower you go down the football pyramid, you don’t really have the finances to be able to work in that box but it is something we do every day in our jobs.

“What people from away from the club, you can only control the controllables and make sure you are there to support them, I can’t stop anybody from looking at social media.”

Kennedy added that were money no object then he would choose to add a psychologist to his staff to assist with that but he did feel Swindon do a good job without a specific person.

He said: “[If I had complete freedom] I would have a psychologist. Psychology in football is huge and a lot of players will have their own individual one.

“I remember speaking to one chairman about it and he just didn’t believe in it, he wanted a set piece coach and I said one of the key things I would have on the staff immediately is something on the mental side.

“It is not something we have ever discussed here because the further you go down the pyramid finances are tough and while it is a huge thing, I think we would be leaving ourselves open to huge criticism if we didn’t have a physio, an analyst, or a goalkeeping coach.

“We have got a huge amount of experience in the building that can help players on a day-to-day basis but I would imagine most problems players go through are non-football problems – we are very fortunate but there are still huge pressures on us in all aspects of life.”