Uncompromising defender Jamie Vincent insists he is enjoying the process of getting to grips with the intricacies of Danny Wilson's preferred style of play.

Town boss Wilson is the sixth manager Vincent has served since arriving at the County Ground in the summer of 2006 and he talked yesterday of how the current blueprint for future success is taking shape.

Vincent explained that Wilson's way involves a more refined style of play than his predeccessors – even if the manager's vision is still very much a work in progress.

He said: "The manager is slowly starting to shown us exactly how he wants us to play. He is putting pictures in the players' minds that probabaly haven't been there before.

"It doesn't matter how long you have been in the game you are always learning every day and we have picked up quite a bit in a short space of time from the new gaffer."

"He wants us to play our way out of trouble if it is on and we are coming to terms with that at the moment. I'm not saying that getting the ball down and trying to dribble out of the box is a new style – and we probably haven't got the skills to do that anyway!

"What we are trying to do, though, is show a bit more composure on the ball and try and keep hold of it better," he added.

"Danny does want us to retain possession better, although I'm not saying that the other managers that were here before just wanted to boom it (the ball) forward and boot it upfield."

The subtle change of style, however, has produced immediate dividends after Town came out the back of a tricky run of games unbeaten.

A recent five game unbeaten run compiled against some of the top sides in League One – but it was ended on Tuesday night against a team much closer to the wrong-end of the table in the form of Hartlepool.

A failure to collect points against their immediate rivals jockeying to move away from the relegation zone, though, has been a recurring Achilles heel for Town this season.

And Vincent was unable to explain exactly why Town they have only managed two wins from 12 games against teams in the bottom-half of the table this season.

"I couldn't tell you," replied Vincent, when asked about the worrying statistic.

"If I knew the answer to that I would probably be a millionaire," he continued, before adding: "It is hard to explain but, perhaps, it is something to do with how the teams lower down the league don't look to play as much.

"They come with a gameplan to get the ball over the top, squeeze up and apply pressure. The promotion-chasing teams are more likely to get the ball down and pass; that probably allows us to play a bit as well."

The next assignment – away at ninth-placed Tranmere this afternoon – then, should not be a problem for a Town side that has collected 23 of their 33 points off sides in the top-half of the table.

They can also look back to the opening day of the season when Town staged a 3-1 demolition job in the last meeting between the two sides and Vincent said: "It looked like they might struggle after we beat them on the opening day of the season in a game that we absolutely dominated.

"Tranmere didn't play very well at all and that result suggested we were going to go on and have a good season. It looked like they might struggle, but it seems to have happened the other way around."

Swindon (from): Brezovan, P Smith, J Smith, Vincent, Ifil, Greer, Kanyuka, Morrison, Timlin, Amankwaah, Allen, Peacock, McNamee, Robson-Kanu, Cox, Paynter.