IN a perfect world, Richie Wellens will have two fresh-faced strikers in his squad by Saturday morning.

Only five days of transfer wheeling and dealing remain for the Town chief, and he will be going all guns blazing to bring in not one but two proven goalscorers in that period to cover for Eoin Doyle and Jerry Yates.

Of course, Yates – who was used as a second half substitute by parent club Rotherham on Saturday – could yet return to Wiltshire for the remainder of the season despite his untimely recall north last Wednesday.

Regardless, Wellens stated that he plans to have two more strikers in his promotion chasing squad before Friday’s deadline.

He said: “I’m under no illusions here, we still need to replace those goals. Look at our bench from Saturday, I’ve got Scott Twine to use who I see as a 10 or wide player – he is not an out and out number nine.

“I’ll be trying to get two strikers in before Friday, not just one.

“We’ve still got goals in our team, Hallam (Hope) scored on Saturday and Kaiyne (Woolery) could’ve scored a few.

“Michael (Doughty) has always got goals in him, and I want him to get a bit higher up the pitch. The way we play and move players around, we’re always going to get chances.”

Hallam Hope’s arrival to SN1 last week was confirmed some five months after club staff thought he would arrive in Wiltshire.

Wellens couldn’t quite prize Hope away from Carlisle United in the summer of last year, but managed to secure the forward on a permanent deal for an undisclosed fee at the start of last week.

The 39-year-old couldn’t pin-point what has changed from United’s point of view, but said: “He hasn’t scored as many goals as he probably would’ve wanted to this year.

“The fact he has scored a goal on debut will give him a massive amount of confidence. But he is a player we identified that could make those movements from the left and create goalscoring opportunities.”