MARTIN Ling would love to keep hold of Ben Gladwin but admits extending the midfielder’s County Ground return is far from a formality.

Last week, Town were able to renew Louis Thompson’s loan deal into the new year and are now eager to do likewise with Gladwin.

Gladwin, who left Town for Championship side QPR over the summer, could have played his last Swindon game in Saturday’s 4-0 win at Chesterfield as his loan runs out on Thursday.

Ling is desperate to retain the 23-year-old’s services but whether he is able to is likely to depend on whether QPR appoint a successor to Chris Ramsey following his sacking at the start of November.

“Ben is finishing on December 3,” said Ling. “We have got a period to see what happens with that but it’s dependant, I should imagine, on whether QPR get a manager in the meantime and if they want to fetch him back. If they don’t want to fetch him back, I’d love to have him longer.”

Thompson grabbed a second goal in two games in the empathic win weekend win at the Proact Stadium as he continues to prove a vital asset for Ling.

Should Gladwin stay on it will not help solve Town’s loan dilemma when they return to action at home to Rochdale on December 12. Striker Wes Thomas was again the man to miss out as Ling attempts to figure out the best combination of his loanees to use.

Ling added: “It was important for me (to keep Thompson). I left him out at Fleetwood and realised after he was massively important to us.

“It wasn’t a case of leaving him out long-term, it was a case of leaving him out because I had to leave someone out. I just felt at that stage we didn’t look so comfortable up front but that’s changed.

“Wes Thomas has missed out on the last two games but we will still have that problem in two weeks’ time. I haven’t got to worry about that for two more weeks but six into five still won’t go.”