Mark Kennedy has been impressed by the desire of George Cox in his two weeks with Swindon Town after arriving on Deadline Day.

Cox got off the mark with an assist on his first start for the club against Newport County on Saturday, having been a half-time substitute against Barrow AFC the previous weekend.

The former Fortuna Sittard man has heavily impressed in his two appearances so far but it was his attitude that Kennedy highlighted.

He said: “100 per cent [he came off to manage his minutes], he has had no pre-season at all and, in fact, he shouldn’t even be playing but as much as we will always support the medical team and go on what they have said, he is the one player where we have said because we are down on numbers we need to fast track him.

“One thing I will say, and I mean this in a positive way, he was fuming when he came off but in the right way.

“What is baffling to me is that he can’t understand why he was coming off; give your head a wobble George.

“But he is desperate to play, I think he trained for one day and was saying ‘Am I playing on Saturday?’, I was like ‘Are you being serious?’ and he was.

“He just wants to play football, he has got a real tunnel vision mindset of what he wants to do and where he wants to go, which is quite impressive.”

But it isn’t just his attitude which got Kennedy talking about his left wing-back, he was also excited about what it meant for the service to his strikers and also how they delivered in the middle.

He said: “The good thing with Cox is that when he gets the ball, there is no ‘What is happening?’ It is coming in the box.

“There are no stepovers, if he has got half a yard then it is coming in.

“His delivery is fantastic and I am pleased for the strikers that they scored, I don’t care who scores because it is about winning games but ultimately the strikers want to score goals.

“I had a good chat with [Paul] Glatz[el], I just feel he has been too tense and keen because he is desperate to do well and score goals.

“His bravery was phenomenal, he has a huge lump on his head and six stitches, to put your head in and do that is phenomenal.”