CONOR Thomas has been the man tasked with plugging the gap for Swindon Town this season and found himself in another new position on Saturday.

Thomas signed as a central midfielder from Coventry City last summer but was been deployed as a makeshift centre-half on a multitude of occasions this term – and even slotted in at right-back once during Town’s surprise win at Bolton Wanderers back in January.

This weekend against Millwall, he was asked to fill one of the wider midfield positions at short notice after Ben Gladwin fell victim to a knee injury in the warm-up.

All four members of Town’s starting midfield for recent fixtures – Gladwin, Rohan Ince, Charlie Colkett and John Goddard – are more suited to central roles but, with the exception of Ince, they are all able to drift out wide.

However, with Thomas included instead of Gladwin, Town had even less width about their play than usual as bombing up and down a flank could not be further away from Thomas’ natural game.

That situation was compounded by the clear tactic of putting the reins on Swindon’s usually flying full-backs as Luke Williams looked to contain Millwall’s potent strikeforce of Steve Morison and Lee Gregory most effectively.

As well as that worked as the Lions barely had a sniff of goal all afternoon, it did make for a rather congested middle third of the pitch and the majority of the hosts’ attacks were by passing through central channels.

Although it did not make to a spectacle that was particularly easy on the eye, that will not matter a jot to Williams as it ultimately proved to be a winning formula come the final whistle.