Swindon Town's Tom Smith and Jake Evans sign for Waterford on short-term loan

Young Swindon Town midfielders Tom Smith and Jake Evans have both made a temporary switch to Irish club Waterford.

Swindon youth academy graduates Smith and Evans, both 18, will be in Ireland until June as both of their deals are set to expire in the summer - at the end of June.

The Irish football season runs from Friday (February 24) to October 10. 

Smith joined Swindon in 2009 and signed a professional deal at the club last summer after scoring a goal in his one league appearance of the season last campaign, in a 3-1 win at Crewe.

The centre midfielder had earlier made his club and professional debut in a 3-0 defeat at Preston in 2015 but started to get more minutes this season.

He featured in eight League One matches, including the entire 90 minutes in a 3-0 win over Rochdale at the County Ground, and got 40 minutes in the 1-0 victory at home to Bradford as a left-back as opposed to his usual role in the heart of the midfield.

Smith also played in three of Swindon's four EFL Trophy matches, and only missed the 3-2 defeat to Luton in the first knockout round due to suspension.

Evans has had less football in a Swindon shirt but did play the entire 90 minutes of that EFL Trophy match against Luton that Smith was forced to sit out of and Evans also came on as a second-half substitute in the 1-1 draw at Exeter in the same competition.

He made his league debut for the club in the 3-0 win over Shrewsbury on the final day of last season, coming on as a 79th-minute replacement for Ellis Iandolo. Evans also got nine minutes in the aforementioned Rochdale win.

Swindon chairman Lee Power owns Waterford too and has previously said that he will use the link to seek new players for the Robins as well as loaning Swindon academy players to Waterford to aid their development.

Smith and Evans are Waterford's 21st and 22nd signing of their pre-season respectively.