SWINDON Town manager John Sheridan has not ruled out a return for midfielder Matt Palmer in January.

The Town loanee was briefly managed by Sheridan while the pair were at Wigan Athletic together, and the 56-year-old liked what he saw from the previously-ostracised playmaker.

But whether Palmer will return to Town’s ranks in January remains to be seen as Sheridan would not confirm nor deny whether the 25-year-old has a future at the County Ground.

Sheridan said: “I’ve always liked Matty as a footballer, and Swindon is his club, but we’ll have to assess the situation more or less when it arises. For the time being, Matty is at Wigan.

“He was gradually getting better as the games were going on because he needed that game time. We’ll assess the situation in January and see what’s best for all parties.”

Sheridan went on to discuss his side’s next opposition – Accrington Stanley – and the dangers John Coleman’s team possess.

Playing in a 3-5-2, Sheridan has matched up against Coleman’s Accrington plenty of times in the past and is looking forward to another meeting against his new side at the County Ground.

Sheridan said: “They’ve had a really good start to the season, Accrington.

“I’ve played a lot against John Coleman’s teams – they play good football, they bring players up from nowhere and he turns them into gems.

“They’ll press from the front, they’ll play long, and they’ll try and play through you. But we’ll take the confidence out of Saturday and hopefully we’ve got a good chance of winning the game.”

And when asked where he believes his team can make the biggest improvement in tonight’s game, Sheridan said: “I think it’s important we don’t concede goals as cheaply and as quickly as we have done.

“I’ve made it clear to the boys that we need to start games faster and try and get an advantage in the game.

“If we do that and we score early, it opens the opposition up because they’ve got to chase the game – that would suit us more because we’ve got good players who can pass around them.

“We know a clean sheet helps you win the game, that’s something we can improve on – we need to keep more clean sheets.”