PAOLO Di Canio has demanded more from some of his summer signings after expressing his frustration at the lack of heart shown against Shrewsbury at the weekend.

After taking a first-half lead through Matt Ritchie, the players failed to show up in the second half as goals from Terry Gornell and Marvin Morgan meant they left Shropshire empty handed.

Di Canio has brought in 15 players since he was named manager back in June and 10 of those were in the matchday 16 that travelled to Shropshire.

And the Town boss has questioned the desire shown by some of those he has brought to Swindon.

“When you sign 15 players you have to pray that you were right about 10 or 12 of those,” conceded Di Canio.

“I didn’t make a mistake over their technical quality but in football you have to play with your heart and a few of the players are empty, I am really disappointed and I will make my decision in the future.

“I can teach technical and tactical situations in training but I cannot give my heart to them.

“It is not all of them, four or five of them were very good, especially the defensive line. Paul Caddis, Aden Flint and Joe Devera did very well, especially because they were always under pressure.

“Sometimes, especially in the middle, we should have more desire to press forward.

“Even if Shrewsbury’s pitch was one of the biggest in the league and they used it very well when they had possession of the ball but we should have more desire to reduce the distance between ourselves and our opponents and force them to play one way.”

Both of the goals that Town conceded on Saturday came as a result of errors at the back, with Phil Smith parrying Lionel Ainsworth’s shot straight at Terry Gornell for the first, while Marvin Morgan was left completely unmarked when he headed home the Shrews’ second.

Di Canio has recognised the need for more cover in defence and is today hoping to find out when Arsenal starlet Daniel Boateng will be able to join up with the Robins.

A loan deal was agreed between Arsenal and Town last week but the Gunners wanted to keep hold of the 19-year-old over the weekend so he could play in a reserve team fixture.

His arrival would be a boost for Town ahead of their Carling Cup second round encounter with Southampton tomorrow night.

“We will see what the situation is (today),” said Di Canio.

“I don’t want to think about this at the moment because now is the time to concentrate on Southampton and I need to prepare for this game.”