MARTIN Ling looks set to continue with the 3-5-2 formation that brought him his first win as Swindon Town boss last weekend.

The new County Ground chief and his assistant Luke Williams have been working on a system that best suits the squad and seemed to find one in the 2-1 success against Scunthorpe.

After the defeat at Rochdale in the FA Cup, Ling stated his intention to use a strike pair against the Iron, but opting to return to a 3-5-2 was more of a surprise.

It was a formation used almost exclusively by former boss Mark Cooper last term, but abandoned in the early stages of this campaign.

Ling believes it to be his best option for utilising the strikers he has, without compromising the defence.

“(Playing 3-5-2) gives us more focus and it also gives you a bit more defensive nous as well. If you’ve got two up there you may stop them at source,” Ling told the local media.

“I don’t think at this moment of time there is a striker in the club who leads the line as an individual. So I think it’s important for us to have two up there.

“I think it is important that we go with two strikers.

“By passing the ball you move teams on, but once you’ve passed it like that you’ve then got to have the ball that you can play into your striker’s feet.

“It’s no good to keep dragging, dragging and dragging teams on, you’ve got to have an outlet or nothing changes with the goal, it is still behind their defence.

“When we played the 4-3-3 we had Jordan Turnbull playing out of position and Nicky Ajose playing out of position. So I think with the personnel we have at the moment (3-5-2) suits.”

However, playing five defenders does stretch Ling’s defensive resources as five of six his available defensive players are all on the pitch at once, although the Town manager does have a back-up plan.

“With Nathan Thompson being injured (3-5-2) is a risky one because the defensive players at the club are all starting,” Ling added.

“It’s something we’ll have to have a look at and make sure we’ve got cover if we get an injury or suspension.

“We also worked on a diamond 4-4-2 in case we did lose one of those back players, we can keep the two up there and stick with the four (at the back).

“I’m out there to man-manage the staff and man-manage the players, but also (look at) set-plays - bits that come through my doing (football management) for some time.

“The remit of what’s being done at the training ground being good I can guarantee what I’ve seen is very good so far.”