SWINDON Town manager Richie Wellens says his team will have to “batten down the hatches” until January if they are not to be cut adrift with a threadbare squad.

Town are currently in dire need of a recognised striker as Sheffield United loanee Tyler Smith is the club’s only fit option up front. Meanwhile, Anthony Grant and Arsenal loanee Matt Smith are the only fit centre midfielders at Wellens’ disposal.

The Town boss was unable to bring in any further players since re-signing Dion Donohue on September 25, and as a result, Swindon will have to battle their way through at least 17 matches until January 1 with limited options.

Hinting at a potential change of style – perhaps a more pragmatic one – until January, Wellens said: “As a manager, you have a style of football and you want to try and get personnel that can fit into it.

“At the moment, I don’t think we’ve got that, so we’re going to have to batten down the hatches and try and nick enough wins to get to January.

“Hopefully, finances might have improved, the government help might have come, and supporters might be back – then we can have a real go.

“When you go up, you need to get your recruitment right, and it’s no fault of anybody’s, it’s just the situation that we’re in.

“I just think we’re two or three short, and if you look at the squad at the minute, it is very, very threadbare.”

With frustrations high both from Wellens and supporters in regard to the lack of transfers, the Town boss set out to explain why the hierarchy at the club were unable to add players in the remaining days of the transfer window.

Wellens also highlighted just how well the club has done to replace the players that left at half the cost.

He said: “Supporters have to understand that there are no fans coming in, we have not got a sheikh or someone who is capable of putting hundreds of millions of pounds in.

“Our chairman does his very, very best to get players through the door and put money in the club.

“Everything that is coming into this club at the minute is from the chairman’s pocket, so it’s tough.

“I honestly believe that we could have had a real go if we had two or three extra players – ok, we’ve not managed to get them.

“We’ve lost 12 players from last year – with the loan players – and we’ve managed to bring in 11 new ones for 50 per cent of what the 12 players that left took up.”