SWINDON Town head coach Ben Garner says the chances of the club bringing in another striker before Saturday are “doubtful.”

Town welcome Carlisle United in the club’s first home fixture of the League Two season and Garner’s men are set to enter the game with youngsters Harry Parsons and Tyreece Simpson as the only recognised strikers at the County Ground.

Swindon managed more than adequately on the opening weekend with only the teenagers at their disposal though – defeating Scunthorpe United 3-1 following a trio of goals from midfield.

But with Simpson and Parsons experiencing regular professional football for the first time, Garner has admitted he would like to bring in at least one more striker to lighten the load on the inexperienced pair.

Whether that happens before Saturday is said to be unlikely, according to the Town boss.

Speaking after defeat to Cambridge United in the League Cup, Garner said: “We would like to get another forward in but whether that is before Saturday, it’s probably doubtful.

“There are one or two other areas we may have a look at too, so as soon as we can get something done, we will.

“Massive, massive credit to Ben Chorley and all the work he’s done in getting the players in that we’ve been able to.

“It’s been an incredible amount of work to do that, and you can see the quality of the players that we’ve brought in.

“We just need time, there’s no shortcut to this, we just need time on the grass every day. The more games they play together, the more they’ll get to know each other and the better they’re going to be.”

Following the euphoria of the win against Scunthorpe, a penalty shoot-out defeat to League One Cambridge ensured no one would be getting too carried away in the early stages of the new season.

Garner insisted the loss was no reality check, however – simply par for the course when attempting to hastily assemble a competent football team.

He said: “Everyone knows where we are and the challenges we face given how difficult pre-season was, as well as how hard we’ve had to work to get to this point.

“I don’t think we could have given a much better account of ourselves than we have over the first two games.

“There are so many positives in there – and certainly far, far more positives than negatives.

“We’re all still positive about things. Yes, it would have been nice to go through, but we haven’t quite done that.”