SWINDON Town head coach Jody Morris “wouldn’t mind sticking a few players in a grow bag” in order to help deal with Stevenage’s supposed direct style of play on Tuesday night.

The Town boss was discussing his game plan for a Stevenage side which sits ninth in the list for most long passes attempted in the division – two below Swindon, who are also top for highest average possession and highest number of accurate passes per match.

Steve Evans’ men have developed a reputation for missing out the midfield when shifting the ball forward, but statistics suggest they are not that team and instead simply win the ball back high up the pitch before sending a plethora of crosses into the box.

However the promotion-chasers operate on Tuesday night, Morris revealed his ideas for setting up against physically-imposing Stevenage.

He said: “We need to give ourselves the best opportunity of dealing with them.

“There are two aspects to us combating what Stevenage will bring. One – trying to compete and trying to win those battles.

“Albeit, there will be times where we’re going up against people who are a lot stronger and bigger than us. So we need to try and flood those areas and try to bring pressure on the ball further up the pitch.

“Also, staying on the ball and protecting possession will be just as important. That’s another area which we haven’t done as well as we’ve needed to in periods.

“There are a lot of things that come into combating Stevenage – I wouldn’t mind sticking a few players in a grow bag as well, which would help!

“But we kind of know what’s coming, and trying to attack and embrace the challenge is how we need to look at it, rather than being fearful.”

Town’s success rate against the most physical or direct sides in the league is mixed, with a hard-fought point against Leyton Orient coming weeks after a late defeat to Sutton United, for example.

Morris admitted his team has suffered against those sides in the past but argued Swindon have improved when it comes to implementing a stubborn rear-guard action.

He said: “We’ve encountered [direct styles] already, albeit not as much as you’re going to get from a Steve Evans side, but we have had moments and periods in games – particularly late on – where teams are chasing against us and they go a lot more direct.

“They make some changes and put a couple of bigger lads up top. There is more than enough evidence to say we haven’t really stood the test as well as we could have, but there are moments where we’ve done better dealing with long throws and long diagonals.”