PAUL Sturrock has underlined his determination to let Town's football do the talking by slapping a ban on his squad talking to the media ahead of Saturday's promotion D-Day.

With the tension already cranked up towards maximum and a sell-out County Ground crowd expected for the visit of title-chasing Walsall, the Town boss has clearly decided that actions speak louder than words.

Media outlets including the Swindon Advertiser were informed by email that "there will be no players available for interview this week at the manager's request.'' With the huge prize of automatic promotion at stake for the home side, Sturrock is keen to keep eyes firmly on the ball ahead of the final game of the regular season.

The manager admitted on Saturday that his pre-match concerns about the players' attitude ahead of the 1-0 defeat at Bristol Rovers had been borne out and is keen to avoid a costly repeat.

Sturrock, who ran the rule over Tonbridge Angels striker Jon Maine in the reserves 1-1 draw with Exeter, said: "I smelt it on Thursday, that kind of joviality that goes with a lack of attitude.

"I tried to stamp it out on Friday but too many of the players were lacklustre against a team who were up for it from the first whistle.

"It's just a recipe for disaster. If you don't match that attitude, that workrate and that desire it doesn't matter what ability players you have, you're going to lose the game.'' Town are likely to be roared on against the Saddlers by a full house, the demand for tickets so high that the club's telephone ticketing system buckled under the strain yesterday.

Walsall have also been allocated an extra 630 tickets for the match, having sold their initial allocation.

Meanwhile, triallist Maine missed two presentable first-half chances for Dave Byrne's reserves as honours were shared at Hunts Copse.

The Angels frontman has been red hot this season, banging in 34 goals in 38 starts and been watched by Wolverhampton Wanderers and Norwich City this season.

And with Sturrock, plus coaches Kevin Summerfield and John Blackley, watching on, he saw an early chance parried clear by goalkeeper Paul Jones before failing to connect fully with a Ben Wells cross later in the half.

Town seized the lead 11 minutes in when Wells was felled in the box while closing in on a cross and Chris Allen stroked the resulting penalty past Jones.

Exeter levelled when Jamie Mackie's pass found John Challinor who slotted past Jon Stewart.

Challinor and Maine went close again in a disjointed second half, Maine seeing his shot saved by Jones in the dying minutes.

Swindon Town: Jon Stewart, Tom Evans, Ben Tozer, Callum Kennedy (Andy Westall), Lloyd Macklin, Chris Allen, Sam Morris, Ben Wells, Luke Hopper (Kurt Hammond), Jon Maine Exeter City: Paul Jones; Patrick Ada, George Friend, Paul Buckle, Danny Seaborne, Jon Richardson, John Challinor, Liam Sercombe, Dean Moxey; Jamie Mackie, Lee Phillips. Subs: Chris Wright, Steve Hunt, Matt Bye, Neal Martin, Dean Stamp