SWINDON took advantage of their week off by taking on Cheltenham Town in a development fixture last Wednesday.

It was a useful exercise, with triallist Joel Chianese scoring two goals in a 4-2 defeat and Mark Cooper getting the chance to observe his fringe players in action.

Of course, in years gone by, reserve team football would have provided regular opportunities for such an exercise.

Though Cooper does think running a reserve side would be a boost to the club on the footballing side, he knows that for Swindon, on their tight budget, it would be difficult.

Asked whether he thought it would be beneficial to see clubs return to a reserve system, Cooper said: “I think so. The thing that comes with that is expense.

“You have to pay for travel and all things like that, which is a big expense for us.

“We have to select when the time’s right and the pick the right team we play so it cuts down the expense.”

The club will continue their current policy when it comes to arranging development games as Cooper is fully aware of their importance.

“Those games and that of Town’s academy sides all help to establish those players in roles they can quickly adapt to when they play with the first team,” said the Town boss.

“It’s important that if we do get free week, that we try and put a fixture in. The boys that have not played need some minutes.

“We’ll try after the Bradford game. We then play again on Tuesday night against Oldham, so we’re targeting the free weeks.

“Scott (Lindsey, the academy coach) works with myself and Luke (Wiliiams) and we watch the videos of the youth team. He watches as many first team game and training (as he can).

“It’s important that we do that because it’s a big ask for a young boy when he comes into a first team.

“I think you can make it easier for him by coming into a team where he knows exactly how that team functions.”

As for an update on Chianese Cooper remained coy.

The Swindon chief added: “He did ok. The decision we’ll have to make, which we haven’t made yet, is whether he’s better than what we’ve got an whether he can improve us.”