PHIL Brown has conceded that the search for his optimum Swindon Town XI goes on as he prepares to reintegrate top scorer Michael Doughty and speedster Kaiyne Woolery fully into first team action.

The manager shuffled his pack again for Saturday's 2-0 defeat at Exeter City, midfielder Martin Smith earning a first league start since August and youngster Scott Twine also getting his chance for the first time since August at St James Park.

A blunt and largely off-key display stretched the Wiltshire men's winless league run to four matches and, despite the season being well into its second quarter, Brown admits he hasn't yet discovered a formation or line-up that fits the bill.

Doughty was in Devon but again sat out Saturday's fixture as he recovers from a hip injury while Woolery, a midweek scorer from the bench in the Checkatrade Trophy win at Plymouth, again came on as a substitute an looked lively in his cameo role.

Both players will get the chance for more minutes in a behind-closed-doors match this week with Brown expecting them to press their claims for a start against Mansfield, bossed by his predecessor David Flitcroft, at the County Ground on Saturday.

"You've got to keep experimenting until you get the right XI out there. I think Exeter have done that over the course of the years, not the last 10 games,'' said Brown.

"Where we're concerned we're experimenting until we're getting the winning formula.

"We're hoping that the emergence of Kaiyne Woolery out of the treatment room, hopefully could be the answer. The system is to get two strikers up there. We'll keep on trying to experiment.

"As a manager you will get pilloried for that. I'll look for the winning formula - I thought we had that on Tuesday night (against Plymouth) and I kept the winning formula, which is a formation basically. Now I've got to look for something else.''

Brown believes there has been progress this term and hopes recent injury worries are starting to recede to clear the picture.

"It's not for the want of trying and I will endeavour to get there,'' he added.

"Looking at the changing room that we had last year at this very ground, when we were beaten 3-1 having gone 1-0 up, there have been a lot of changes, but I'm not using that as an excuse.

"At the same time, there was an underlying cancer at the club last year, the majority of which was in the treatment room.

"We had nine players in the treatment room when I arrived at the football club, so to even get a team out was difficult.''

He added: "Confidence is a key factor. When you've got Michael Doughty in the team and he's scored six goals in seven games, maybe Michael is the answer.

"But I'm not going to risk him in a game if he's going to break down again and could be out for another seven or eight games.

"We've got a game behind closed doors on Tuesday and that will be for Michael and also for Kaiyne Woolery.

"We'll get 70 or 80 minutes out of those two and they will stake a claim for Saturday. Maybe therein lies the key.''