TOWN boss Mark Cooper has questioned the benefit of playing pre-season friendlies against high-profile opposition.

On Saturday Swindon lost their second pre-season outing to Premier League Everton 4-0 at the County Ground.

Though they lived with the Toffees for much of the first half, Roberto Martinez’s side showed their quality after the break. Belgium internationals Romelu Lukaku and Kevin Mirallas combined for the three goals, with promising youngster Conor McAleny getting the other.

The gulf in class was increasingly evident as the game wore on and Cooper would have learned little about his unfamiliar squad’s ability to play Town’s brand of football from watching Everton keep the ball.

In essence, that was the County Ground chief’s point as he queried the benefit of such an exercise.

“It’s not really ideal to be playing the big teams because you know you’re going to be doing a lot more chasing than you would in normal games when we’d have a lot of the ball,” said Cooper.

However he does realise playing host has other benefits to the club and lining up against the big boys, literally in Lukaku’s case, provides motivation for his players.

“We have to play them and it’s good because it fills the coffers and helps bring some new players,” he added.

“You see the Premiership players, they seem to be really big and powerful, it’s great for our lads to aspire to be there.”

One player who looks like he will have to have aspirations elsewhere is Miles Storey. Cooper confirmed he would be looking to loan out the former England Under 20 striker.

“I think the plan was to get Miles out on loan to make sure he’s playing,” he said.

“I think that will remain the plan. While he’s here we’ll give him an opportunity.”