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Luke Williams impressed with quartet of new faces at Swindon Town

Following Swindon's exceptional 2-1 win at promotion-chasing Bolton, head coach Luke Williams had plenty of time for the host of debutants on show at the Macron.

The victory, which was only Swindon's second away win all season, lifted the Robins from 19th to 18th, however it did not help them much in their fight against relegation as Bury, Chesterfield and Shrewsbury also picked up three points on Saturday.

Four players - Ben Gladwin, Fankaty Dabo, Charlie Colkett and Islam Feruz - all signed last week on loan deals until the end of the season and the entire quartet played from the start against Bolton, making their debuts, although Gladwin has had two spells at the club before. 

Williams had plenty of time to praise the four at full-time, but first he focused on the calmness of his side. For the first time this season they won a match after going a goal down, something even more worthy of note considering earlier losses on the road this season which include 4-0 batterings at Sheffield United and Rochdale as well as a 4-1 reverse at Scunthorpe's Glanford Park.

David Wheater gave Bolton the lead shortly after the restart but Swindon hit back later in the second half with goals from Gladwin and an 89th-minute Yaser Kasim winner.

"Well I think we kept calm after conceding, which I have to say we conceded from a corner that was actually a goal kick, but the boys stayed calm and there was a storm to weather immediately after the goal and they didn't collapse. Two moments of real quality put us in front," Williams started before going on to the new boys' impressive starts to life at Swindon.

"(Gladwin's long-range shooting prowess) is almost like having a player inside the box when Ben gets it from 20 yards and people don't press him.

"He's very accurate and got great, great power so as soon as I saw the ball drop to him I thought 'we've got a chance to score'.

"(The game) was becoming basketball and I think there was a lot of heavy legs and at that point it could have gone either way. It looked like the longer the game went on the more likely we were to score.

"I don't think it's a coincidence that it's coincided with new players coming to the club. We've got excellent players already at the club but sometimes the balance can be off in a squad and we've got Ben Gladwin who we know is a match winner and can do things that nobody else can do.

"We don't know much about Charlie at the moment but he showed some things with a left foot that I've not seen for a while at League One level!

"I'm sure there are a lot of things for him to work on in his game but he provided a wonderful ball in the box and Yaser scored a goal moments after he missed an earlier chance and I think he really made up for that."

"I think it was the 95th minute and (Dabo) travelled 50 or 60 yards up the pitch with the ball - it's something quite unusual, that level of athleticism. He's that quick (that) he can get forward and not leave himself exposed and he can make a recovery tackle and a recovery run - it's almost like he's doing two jobs.

"I don't think he was overly fazed with playing at this beautiful stadium with lots of people (and) against a team that are in real good form at the top of the league.

"I think (Feruz) will benefit from some fitness and exposure to the intensity of League One football but there were times where he was a real threat with a change of direction and pace so I'm looking forward to seeing more of that."

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