PHIL Brown has admitted the absence of Michael Doughty deprives Swindon Town of a key influence but is not prepared to let his team hide behind the loss of their top scorer as their League Two campaign proceeds.

Doughty, who has five goals to his name already this season, watched Saturday's 2-1 defeat to Bury from the sidelines after aggravating a hip problem sustained earlier in the season.

Without him, Town mustered a miserable three shots in total at the County Ground, while the 25-year-old's presence in the centre of the park was sorely missed as the Shakers dominated.

It is unclear whether Doughty will be available for next weekend's trip to Yeovil but manager Brown insists it is the responsibility of the team to step up and deliver in his absence.

"We did miss Michael Doughty and I don’t like saying that because it puts pressure on him to get back too early and you don’t want that,'' said Brown.

"He’s one of 11 when he’s out there but his influence was sorely missed. His qualities you probably take for granted sometimes in the final third but we didn’t have that.

"We had players taking far too many touches for the first time this season and that’s normally a sign that you haven’t got anything on.

"They’ve looked up and there’s no movement, options and therefore you have to take another touch because you don’t want to give the ball away. Then you get closed down and before you know it the opposition shape is better than your shape.

"We showed little glimpses, but not often enough and yeah, Michael was a big miss.''

Referring to Doughty's injury problem, the Town boss added: "It was a little niggle that he’s had. He’s played through it for the last three weeks.

"I can’t remember the game but he had a little clash of the hip. It’s more bruising than anything else and it’s painful.

"He started training (on Friday), but unfortunately couldn’t finish it. The writing was on the wall. We finished training with Ellis (Iandolo) playing in that midfield berth and I decided to make a change (substitution against Bury) just to bring in more experience in Toumani (Diagouraga) and pushing Jak McCourt further forward.

"But it wasn’t about individuals, it was the collective. It was collectively a poor performance.

"I don’t think any one of our team can come in and hold their hands up and say ‘I won my battle. I won my individual area of the field.’

"We huffed and puffed to a certain extent, but (there was) no real threat. There were a couple of half penalty shouts but we didn’t trouble Bury enough with our guile and our quality that we have done in the last six games.''

Town's search for new faces has also come up empty following the end of their interest in signing Japanese player Eijin Kishimoto last week.

Another trialist spent time at the club last week, but Brown said: "The trialist wasn’t good enough in one of the sessions on Friday, so we just cut our losses and moved on.''