MARK Cooper believes the addition of John Swift adds a welcome fresh competitive dimension to Town’s midfield, in the absence of Massimo Luongo and Yaser Kasim.

Swift made a speedy start to life in a Town shirt as he took his place in the starting line-up at Fleetwood Town on Saturday and impressed the 600 plus travelling fans.

In the first half he was sharp on the ball and skipped past five Fleetwood defenders before being brought down to win Swindon a first-half penalty, which Michael Smith failed to convert.

A lack of match fitness saw that first half spark start to fade in the second half but there was enough in the 19-year-old’s performance to please Cooper, with Kasim and Luongo tied up with Asian Cup commitments for up to a month.

“I thought he was outstanding in the first half,” added Cooper who suggested that a lack of game time was the reason why his loan spell at Rotherham at the start of the season was why it was cut short.

“You can see he has been at Chelsea for so long and his balance and his ability to take people on and create things can only be a bonus for us going forward.

“He has not played loads of football and you can see that in the second half, he tired a bit but I think on that showing you can say that he is going to help us.

“We haven’t given any guarantees (to Chelsea that he will play), that is for certain, but if he plays like that he is going to play no matter who comes back.

“It is great and it is competition for places. Anton Rodgers has come on for 10 or fifteen minutes and looked good as well, so we have got plenty of good players in midfield.

“It is going to take him two or three games to get match fit so I am sure once he has played two or three games he will be able to replicate the first half performance for longer.

“I think the way that we look after the loan players and the way we play certainly helps us when we enquire about their young players.

“They want him to play. Every big club wants their young players to get competitive game time and every young player that comes to us gets that and that is invaluable for these big clubs.”