SWINDON Town head coach Ben Garner says the club will try to strengthen the squad in January but are likely to be under the same restrictions as the summer due to the ongoing transfer embargo.

Garner’s men remain under one part of a transfer embargo which prevents the Robins from spending any transfer fees, awarding mutli-year contracts, or holding more than 23 players “of professional standing” in their squad.

Town have surpassed nearly all pre-season expectations and sit fourth in League Two ahead of a trip to Leyton Orient on Tuesday night.

With an unexpected promotion challenge to support, the Town hierarchy has already started planning to recruit a handful of missing pieces in order to get the club over the line come May.

In Friday’s pre-match press conference, Garner said: “We want to improve the squad. I think we do that anyway on a weekly basis with the work we do with them.

“We’re coaching to improve them, but the other way is to recruit new players, and we would like to do that.

“We’d like to strengthen both in terms of quality and character, and we’ll be doing our best to do that in January.”

“As things stand, we’re still under the embargo so we’re as we were in the summer transfer window.

“We can’t pay any transfer fees as things stand, so we’re restricted there. Whether that will change before or during January, I honestly don’t know.

“Both myself and Ben Chorley will be looking at the parameters we’re working within, and whatever they are we will do the best we can in terms of recruitment.”

A couple of players who may be destined for more time away are current Chippenham Town loanees, Harry Parsons and Ricky Aguiar.

The pair of young Swindon attackers played a part in a crushing 4-1 win for the Bluebirds on Saturday, with Parsons scoring an eight-minute hat-trick and Aguiar netting the other.

Garner is delighted with how the pair’s loan spell is going, and has backed them both to kick on during their time at the Thornbury Surfacing Stadium.

Garner said: “I’m really pleased for Harry. I think he was a bit frustrated in his first couple of games because he hadn’t scored.

“He’s a great finisher, and that’s his biggest strength. That’s what we’ve been trying to get him to develop – not becoming more greedy, but just understanding that his biggest strength is his finishing. In games, we want him to get those shots off. If he gets an opportunity, pull the trigger.

“He’s a really promising young player for us, and I’m pleased he’s gone and done that because it will give him a huge amount of confidence now.”