IT’S no great surprise that Hallam Hope won’t head back to his Manchester home ahead of Swindon Town’s important League Two trip to Colchester on Tuesday night.

The striker, who scored on his Town debut at the weekend as Port Vale were comprehensively beaten 3-0 at the County Ground, has endured a logistically challenging week having made the 272-mile move from Carlisle to Swindon on Wednesday.

Hope trained with United on Wednesday morning before dashing back to his Manchester base in the afternoon to collect a few homely essentials.

A medical was completed later that afternoon before the club officially revealed the 25-year-old as their latest signing at 5pm.

It will take Hope just as long to travel home while playing for Swindon compared to his Carlisle days, so there is no change there.

But given the importance of Tuesday night’s visit to the Colchester Community Stadium, Hope will spend a couple of days settling into his latest home before returning up north.

He added: “It’s the nature of the game we play, one minute you can be up north and the next down south.

“I actually trained with Carlisle in the morning before leaving there to drive back to Manchester and pick some things up before coming down to Swindon and complete a medical.

“I trained on Thursday morning (with Swindon), so it’s been a hectic week but I’m glad we topped it up with a three-goal win.”

Hope doesn’t arrive in Wiltshire feeling any pressure to fill the boots left by goalscoring sensation Eoin Doyle or ex-Carlisle teammate Jerry Yates.

After all, the three players each have completely different playing styles. Hope adopted an attacking role on the left side of Diallang Jaiyesimi and Lloyd Isgrove yesterday, with Kaiyne Woolery acting as Town’s sole striker up front.

Nonetheless, Hope scored on his Town debut when clinically smashing Rob Hunt’s first time cross past Scott Brown’s reach with only minutes remaining in the opening half.

He added: “I don’t feel any pressure to fill Eoin Doyle or Jerry Yates’ boots.

“We’re all different players, though I know Jerry is a great player having played with him at Carlisle. There’s no comparable pressure, I’m here to do what I can for the team.

“It’s encouraging Richie (Wellens) wants another striker too – the more players we have, the more options we have.

“For me, this move is ideal and I hope I can help the team win promotion – that’s definitely the collective objective.”