MARK Cooper has suggested that Swindon Town may have a chance of keeping the likes of Alex Pritchard and Ryan Mason on an extended basis, particularly should the Robins somehow sneak promotion to the Championship.

The on-loan Tottenham pair are some way down the pecking order at their parent club and, like Massimo Luongo last summer, could find their way to the first time blocked by a flurry of imports.

Using Luongo as an example, Cooper hinted that the possibility may exist for Town to secure Mason and Pritchard’s longer term, telling the Advertiser: “You never know. It could depend on where we are at the end of the season. If we were lucky enough to get a lottery ticket into the play-offs who knows. Once you get in there anything can happen and you are in a strong position to keep or attract new players.

“There’s no guarantee that those players are going to leave. They may join us permanently - Massimo did.

Cooper admitted he was already planning his summer recruitment drive, saying: “We have to make sure we get our recruitment right and the players we bring in are going to be ready to slot into the system we’ve created.

“You look at players and think ‘maybe we’ll have a slot and that person could fit into that slot quite comfortably and improve the way we play’.”