Jack Bycroft has stepped up his levels since losing his place in the Swindon Town line-up to Dan Barden, according to Mark Kennedy.

The former Southampton goalkeeper started each of Town’s first eight games of the League Two season before being replaced by Barden at Tranmere Rovers, with the on-loan Norwich man having conceded once across all competitions since coming into the line-up.

Speaking ahead of Swindon’s game against Cheltenham Town this weekend, Kennedy said that both goalkeepers have been impressing him with their displays but Bycroft has thrilled him with his response to being taken out of the starting 11 with his work pushing the squad.

He said: “[Barden's performances have been] excellent. We have got a really good group of people and so the levels of training every day have been outstanding.

“He has been very good but I actually singled out Jack to the group after the game because his standards since he has come out of the team have been so high.

“They were really high when he was in the team but since he has come out it has stuck out like a sore thumb.

“In terms of his support to the group, and particularly to myself, it has been really good evidence of a good person.

“That is a thing you build as you go along and it is the reason why when we recruit players the number one thing I do is find out about the person.

“We know that they have good ability because they are on the list but if you are not a good person then you don’t come through the door.”

Swindon chose to keep Barden in the line-up against Bristol Rovers in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy on Tuesday night instead of rotating Bycroft back in as would often happen in cup competitions, and Kennedy explained that decision.

He said: “The decision was easy as it was just because he has played so little football and it was a case of trying to give him some momentum.

“He had only played a couple of games, if he had had a lot more games or minutes under his belt then we would have rotated him.

“The cup competitions are about enabling us to facilitate our squad but we just felt with Dan that we wanted to give him some momentum because he has had so little time and I thought he was excellent.”