LUKE Williams believes that Fankaty Dabo’s difficult outing at Northampton Town was indicative of a player so wet behind the ears.

The 21-year-old defender, who joined on loan from Premier League giants Chelsea in January, struggled in his sixth game at League One level on Tuesday night, coughing up possession twice early on and clumsily felling Keshi Anderson to concede a sixth-minute penalty.

Dabo, who was cautioned booked for that foul on Anderson, was hooked at half-time by head coach Williams but the Swindon Town chief was happy to put his loanee’s tricky 45-minute display down to inexperience.

“They put a lot of pressure on us. They left three players at the top of the pitch and they hit everything long in there,” said Williams.

“I think Franky, probably, has not been exposed to that too many times and with a young player, there’s always a chance that the early stages of a game can affect them, and they struggle to recover.

“But we know that he’s got so much quality and such a bright future, and that happens.’’ Williams added: “Once he’s booked, for me, it was too much of a risk to keep him on the pitch because he was going to continue to be under pressure, and that was why I made the decision to remove him.”

When asked if he considered substituting Dabo even earlier than the break, Williams added: “I think it’s too damaging and not only that but players often play out of a bad spell and, in fact, can sometimes use that as a real wake-up call, and then really perform outstandingly.

“You are taking away the opportunity of making a tactical change higher up the pitch if you go too early.”

Meanwhile, Williams is also adamant that Ben Gladwin – another January loan signing, who notched on debut at Bolton Wanderers that month – has the battling spirit to play a key role in Town’s attempts to beat the drop.

The County Ground head coach said of the Queens Park Rangers man: “Ben’s got tremendous talent and he loves this football club, and he is fighting and giving everything he can, and I can suffer the odd touch going astray because there will be moments of genius from Ben, as we saw at Bolton and as we’ve seen in the past.

“We need people that are desperate to fight for the cause and Ben is absolutely desperate, and he’ll give everything, and he loves this football club .

“I completely back him to start turning on his top game.”