HEAD coach Ben Garner has suggested Swindon Town will make a goalkeeper the club’s first signing of the January transfer window.

In Friday’s pre-match press conference ahead of the New Year’s Day clash with Northampton Town, Garner revealed Swindon are “close” to announcing a deal for an unnamed player – though he refused to say in which position it would be.

However, when later questioned on the immediate future of number one stopper, Jojo Wollacott, Garner stated Northampton would be the Ghanaian international’s final appearance for a few weeks and the club is “quite close” to bringing in a third-choice goalkeeper.

Asked first if there is likely to be any early movement in the transfer window at the County Ground, Garner said: “We’re close on getting one done which will be done very early in January.

“We’ve got one or two other targets which we’d like to get done quite quickly.

“There’s been good work done behind the scenes as always from Ben Chorley and the recruitment team.

“We’d like to get some business done early and then buy ourselves time to assess the squad going through the rest of January.”

When Wollacott has departed for international duty this season, the club has been forced to name 43-year-old goalkeeping coach Steve Mildenhall on the bench.

In a bid to strengthen the shot-stopping department, Garner said he wants a third-choice stopper who is willing to and capable of filling in when necessary.

Town remain under a transfer embargo, therefore the new goalkeeper will have to be a free agent or a loan deal.

Swindon currently have four loans at the club, and while they can bring in however many they like – though just four from one club - only five can be named in a match-day squad.

Garner said: “We’re looking to bring a goalkeeper in, and we’re quite close to doing that. I’d like to think we’ll have that done fairly soon.

“This isn’t just because of Jojo going, we wanted another goalkeeper anyway. But we wanted one who we felt was going to push and challenge both Jojo and Lewis Ward.

“We’re close to doing that, and I’d like to get that done as quickly as we can.”