LUKE Williams admits he had begun to question whether his Swindon Town players had accepted defeat in their battle to beat the drop in League One before they reignited their survival fight at the weekend.

Conor Thomas’ dramatic late winner secured Town a 1-0 win at home to play-off chasing Millwall, ending a run of four straight losses in the process.

Post-match, head coach Williams revealed he had raised serious doubts over whether his troops really felt they could haul themselves out of danger and was delighted to see them respond in perfect fashion against the Lions as they reduced the gap to safety to four points.

“I challenged the squad on Thursday. For the first time, I felt like possibly some people had given up and I made a big statement,” said Williams.

“They answered me today and told me to shut up with this performance, so I am very impressed with that.

“That is something that every manager would love. To be in dire straits and make a big statement to challenge your squad and instead of people going hiding or being outraged, they just said: ‘OK, we’ll take that and show you on Saturday’. That’s perfect.”

Williams himself has never given up hope that Town can get out of trouble and although they remain up against it with six games to go, he is keen to use this result as the catalyst for a prolonged fightback.

“I can only really speak from my point of view but I have never quit,” said Williams.

“I’ve never stopped trying to come up with a good gameplan for the players, never stopped trying to put a session together to help them understand a few things better – and that goes for all of my staff as well.

“I hope the players feel the same and I hope the players feel this is a springboard.

“We have been in this situation a few times and I hope now they feel they can go anywhere and win. They must give everything for the full game and anything is still possible.

“That’s all I can ask, that people don’t quit and that they fight until the bitter end and I still believe that we will get to safety.

“The players will have learnt a huge amount from this season and for the rest of their career they will know that there are certain pitfalls that they must avoid throughout the season so they won’t have to be in this position again.”