Gavin Gunning has said that Swindon Town will be forced to adapt to the absence of Udoka Godwin-Malife against Walsall on Tuesday.

Godwin-Malife became the first Swindon player this season to receive a red card after he got a second booking for time-wasting during stoppage time against AFC Wimbledon on Saturday.

The defender will now miss the rearranged trip to the Poundland Bescot Stadium on Tuesday through suspension, leaving the interim head coach with a potential selection headache.

Gunning said that it would be impossible to replace Godwin-Malife like for like and he would need to find a different way to work around his absence.

He said: “It is impossible for someone to have his attributes because he is a physical freak, I don’t think you are going to get anybody as powerful or quick as him.

“You have always got to adapt the way you play from that because it is impossible to get an athlete like him and we are lucky to have him here.

“It will be a different type of player [who comes in to replace him].

“I think that you have to keep trying to do what has been successful and we have been a lot more dominant in possession [since the shift to a back three], which has helped.

“I just think we have to keep doing what we have been doing, it has been successful so don’t go away from it.

“Against Barrow [Frazer Blake-Tracy] was fantastic, he was a little bit quieter at the weekend but against Barrow, he showed what he could do.

“We are a properly dominant team when those two are driving into that space; nobody can deal with it.”

Gunning said that he feels that since moving back to playing a back three, Swindon have been able to be more in control of possession and that has been key behind their upturn in results.

He said: “I think that when we have played before, the pitch doesn’t help because it is bobbly as anything, but we went away from [being possession-based].

“We were dominant when I first came in with the ball and then I feel we lost our confidence, and we played the teams around us and the pitch would bobble and we would hesitate on it.

“Now we have got back towards dominating the ball and being a threat and being potent when we have it.”