SWINDON Town defender Tom Broadbent says he came to Wiltshire with the sole intention of getting promoted into League One with Richie Wellens’ side.

Broadbent, who has recently turned 27, only made his first steps into the professional game during the summer of 2017 when he signed for Town’s west country rivals Bristol Rovers after spending six years serving with the Royal Artillery.

After making 36 appearances for the Gas, and scoring on his final outing, the former Lance Bombardier made the move east in January to join Wellens’ operation to take Swindon out of League Two.

Broadbent insists his only wish would have been to start playing professionally at a younger age.

But now that he has a foot in the game, he wants to make up for lost time and achieve his dreams of playing as high up in the English Football League as possible.

He said: “I always sit there and think ‘Wow, I wish I could’ve started in the game earlier’.

“I don’t think it’s a positive or negative thing – you can take pros and cons out of it either way.

“I suppose the positives of it are that I’m a bit more mature and I learn a bit quicker, but the negative side is I’m obviously a bit older and I haven’t got that actual game-time experience.

“I might have a bit of experience in my head, but not necessarily the time I need on the pitch yet.

“Any professional, they want to play as high as they can. Sometimes you’ve got to drop down to come back up.

“I needed the games, that’s here, and hopefully I can play a lot more games and we can get promoted. That’s the aim, to get promoted with Swindon.”

Since joining the club last month, Broadbent has played four games with two different central-defensive partners, neither of which have been club captain Olly Lancashire as he continues to struggle with injury.

In the absence of their certified leader, Broadbent says he is happy to bark orders from the back and admitted he would be honoured to wear the armband if given the opportunity to do so by Wellens.

Broadbent said: “It would be an honour to captain the team, but that’s not my decision.

“If I captain the team or not, that’s up to the gaffer, but I can lead out there anyway without the armband, so it doesn’t really bother me at this moment in time.”

The 6'2" defender also knows he must continue to produce high-quality performances if he is to keep his place in the starting line-up.

“Competition for places is always a good thing,” said Broadbent.

“If you don’t have that then you get complacent and you sit there and think ‘yeah, I’m playing’, but if you have it, then it keeps you working harder.”