AFTER another derby defeat last weekend, it was clear the Swindon Town squad needed some new faces to help get out the rut they find themselves in.

Thankfully on transfer deadline day, both familiar and new names arrived as Nicky Ajose, Rohan Ince and Jesse Starkey all joined the club - to a mixed response on social media.

Ajose returns for a third spell after failing to make an impression at Charlton Athletic. It’s great to see him come back after the club’s failure to find a replacement for his goals this season.

Town also strengthened their midfield with Brighton loanee Ince, a defensive midfielder, who adds much-needed quality to midfield, and permanent signing Jesse Starkey, who is an unknown quantity at this stage.

These three guys join the other January recruits - Ben Gladwin, Charlie Colkett, Fankaty Dabo, Islam Feruz and Dion Conroy - to make it six new loan players and two permanent signings.

With the transfer window now shut until the summer, will the eight new additions be enough to save Town’s season? Has this window been a success, failure or a bit of both for chairman Lee Power? I would say the latter.

The Chelsea loanees look like good additions, Gladwin has been his up and down self, and from what we’ve been told, Conroy has an exciting future ahead of him.

Bringing back Ajose will prove to be great business, Ince has 100 plus career games behind him, mostly in the Championship, and we’ll learn about Starkey as time goes on.

But the elephant in the room is again the massive over-reliance on loan players and the fact experienced heads in the squad are still missing.

The loan market for clubs like Town is vital and serves a great purpose, but it’s not meant to be there to build half your squad. In this window again, Power has predominantly looked short-term, not putting his money where his mouth is.

That will leave us with the same problem this summer as we’ve experienced over the past couple of years, as half our squad head back to their parent clubs.