Interim Swindon Town head coach Gavin Gunning says some of his players must build up their minutes before they can play for longer in fixtures.

Many of the new signings that have been made in the January transfer window have been limited for minutes or recently come back from injuries, meaning they cannot play for long and constant periods in games.

Some of the players are Paul Glatzel, Aaron Drinan and Harry McKirdy, all new signings who have recently come back from injuries that have kept them out of action just before completing moves to SN1.

He said: “They haven’t played a lot of minutes and they’re coming into a strenuous league on their body, so unfortunately it’s where we’re at.

“They’re good players and they’ve had a good impact when they’ve played and it just inhibits you a little bit but I’m not making excuses, there’s people with smaller squads than us at the minute and they’re doing fine with that.

“I think a lot of them are just coming fit from injuries so they’ve got to build up their minutes and some of them haven’t been playing.

“It’s not a thing where they’re not doing great and that’s why they’re not playing but they’re good players and unfortunately it’s just for the next couple of weeks.”

The Irishman then discussed possible frustration when players have to be substituted earlier than they’d like in games.

“Unfortunately. when they’re playing really well and they only have a certain amount of time in them it’s frustrating for them because they’re not going to be happy either.

I’ve done it the other week; I think it was Rush (Hepburn-Murphy) maybe and he wasn’t happy.

“Obviously I want to keep them on but you can’t, it’s simple.”

The former Forest Green Rovers defender then elaborated on how he’d be feeling if every player in his squad was available.

He said: “I’d be happy. You can’t shy away, you want players to be there, people knocking on the door and people questioning when they’re not playing and you’ve got to be honest with them.

“I think I had it myself as a player when the manager says ‘you’re gonna be back in’ but then you don’t come back in.”

“I think the players hate you for a day or two, but they respect you more.”