SWINDON Town manager Richie Wellens says the best attributes of top scorer Eoin Doyle are his attitude and appetite to improve.

Doyle scored in his ninth League Two appearance in succession on Saturday as Swindon sunk Oldham Athletic 2-0 at the County Ground to keep their place at the top of the table.

The Irish striker has notched 12 goals during those nine games and has 19 in total for Town this season – a haul that places him nine clear at the top of the division’s scoring charts.

Fellow Town forward Jerry Yates is second on that list, with Wellens stating he possess the same traits as Doyle in regard to the desire to continually better his own game.

“When you are a coach and trying to improve people, they have to really take it on board,” said Wellens.

“I worked with players last season where I looked at them and never truly believed they wanted to improve and they wanted to take on board and carry out what I wanted them to do.

“It is beneficial for them but it is also beneficial for the team if they do listen.

“Every credit to both Eoin and Jerry.

“When Eoin is playing as that lone striker especially, he just wants to learn. Even at 31, he wants to get better and is getting all the rewards for it.”

Although thrilled with Doyle’s exploits in front of goal and contribution to the team’s success, Wellens stated that the striker is simply doing what is expected of him – albeit to a high level than anyone at Town could possibly have hoped.

“He is a striker, we pay him to score goals, we don’t pay him to run around and be pretty,” said Wellens.

“The strikers that I have worked with – Jerry Yates scores goals and Theo Robinson hit a real purple patch when he came here.

“That is what Eoin is here to do. That is his job and long may it continue.

“We pay him to score goals but we didn’t quite know he was going to get this many.”

Both Doyle and Yates are only on loan at Town, having joined from Bradford City and Rotherham United respectively over the summer.

Although the deals are stated as season-long agreements, that needs to be rubber-stamped by all parties in January.

Wellens says Town remain in negotiations to keep the two strikers at SN1 for the full campaign, adding that both players want to stay too.

“We are in contact on a regular basis with all the parent clubs but, at the moment, it is December and we can’t do anything,” said Wellens.

“All the players that I have spoken to all want to stay, which is the main thing.”