THE STRANGE predicament that Swindon Town find themselves in regarding the paucity of their squad and the denial that something needs to be done continues to rumble despite the situation approaching a critical peak.

Tomorrow night when Swindon travel to Newport they will be without three players due to international call-ups and potentially four more because of injury or illness.

Being a Johnstone’s Paint Trophy fixture, changes to the starting XI are to be expected, but two will be forced and with not a plethora of options waiting in the wings. Without any incomings the squad’s shortcomings could be even more apparent in the return to league action next Saturday.

Manager Mark Cooper’s role in the signing of players is minimal. Chairman Lee Power is the man with his hand on the tiller and dictates who comes and who goes.

Cooper has clearly been told to give very little away on the issue, but given he has been the most regular mouthpiece for the club his utterances are somewhat bizarre.

After Saturday’s defeat to Sheffield United he said once more players would have to leave before any came in.

The last time he said that was after the draw at Bury. Just the next day it was revealed Town were in talks with Jordan Stewart and no one had left.

Cooper was pressed on the situation regarding his squad in his post-match press conference and did make an admission on the subject.

“No we can’t compete comfortably at all,” he responded when discussing the differences between his side and their conquerors on Saturday.

“What we can do is when we get our best players on the pitch we can (compete).”

Initially Cooper had toed the line, insisting that without the injuries, working with thinly-spread resources is manageable.

“We are short,” he explained. “But when we get our three or players back, if we bring somebody in they’re not going to play.

"We don’t want to overload it and pay wages that in three or four weeks you don’t have to.”

Letting his guard slip a little, he added: “It’s frustrating, we would like reinforcements, but there’s a lot of coaches and managers who are out of work and would love to be in work.

"So I’m not going to moan about it.”

In terms of timeframes on the absences of the players in question the Town boss was more revealing.

“Jon Obika and Nathan Thompson will be touch and go for next Saturday and Jermaine Hylton is three or four weeks away,” Cooper said.

“We’re hoping that Brandon will be fit for Tuesday and that may help us out a bit.”