SWINDON Town manager David Flitcroft admits that it is too soon to pass judgement on the trialists he is currently running the rule over at the club.

In the opening two games of pre-season, Flitcroft has given game time to five out-of-contract players, Zavon Hines, Jack Bainbridge, Jordan Slew, Donal McDermott and Cece Franck Pepe.

The latter, a 21-year-old French central defender, failed to make the squad for Tuesday night’s game with Melksham Town, while Bainbridge, who came through the youth system at Everton and had a trial at Stoke City in January this year, played the full 90 minutes at Oakfields Stadium.

While rumours circulate that Irish forward McDermott, who was offered a new deal with Rochdale back in May, has been given a one-year contract with the club, Flitcroft says he needs to see more of the players in order to make a coherent decision, with tomorrow’s game behind closed doors at the County Ground against Oldham Athletic another chance to impress.

“It’s difficult to assess them against the opposition and that is no disrespect to the opposition,” he told the local media, having been impressed with the shift put in by former West Ham youngster Hines on Tuesday.

“To earn a contract at Swindon Town, it’s a really important stage of anyone’s career, so I have got to make sure that we make that decision based on stats and how they are fitting into the squad.

“I have not used the games for that; it’s other things that we’re looking at and we’ll assess it and analyse what they do.

“It’s too early to decide.

“I’ll look towards the end of the week and see where they are at.

“Friday gives us another opportunity to probably get more game time, we’ll probably take it up to 65 or 70 minutes, depending on what our load is on Wednesday and Thursday.

“That’s all in the planning and preparation as you try and guide players through a game.”

While Flitcroft admits he is a long way away from making up his mind on who will line up against Carlisle on the opening game of the season, he is more than content with where he is at in the rebuilding of the squad for the new season.

“(On Tuesday night) I found out something about one of my players Scott Twine. He is what I believe football is about, that enthusiasm and playing with an energy,” he added.

“We’re finding out things all the time about this group of players.

“We’re nowhere near the finished article but from what we have started from, ground zero, to where we are now, I am a lot more positive in how things are rolling on.

“We’ll keep improving the squad, we’ll keep improving how we attack teams and how we defend against teams and we’re on the right path.”