SWINDON Town boss Mark Cooper has said that he never considered changing a winning system ahead of Tuesday night’s game with Rochdale.

Cooper was forced to juggle things around at the back with the absence of Nathan Thompson – suspended for two games after seeing red at Yeovil – as well as Raphael Branco out injured and Brad Smith recalled by Liverpool.

Midfielder Yaser Kasim was brought into the back three to fill in for the suspended skipper rather than a natural defender.

While Kasim still controlled large parts of the game from that position he looked much more comfortable after the arrival of Louis Thompson, who was left on the bench after picking up a slight calf strain, allowing the Iraq international to push further forward.

When asked if he would ever consider abandoning the three at the back system that has proved so effective for Town so far this season, Cooper said: “That’s what we think works and there will be no point changing it because we’ve had so much success with it and it is what we have worked with.

“We run with a small squad so we know at times when we get suspensions and injuries we are going to be stretched.

“Because we try and dominate the football, with Yaser (Kasim), he is going to get on the ball and try and get us playing, which he did in spells and we had a lot of possession in the first half.

“They dropped off and tried to make us kick it and when they won it back they smashed it up to their front three and we couldn’t deal with it. It just shows you how important Nathan Thompson is.

“We had some really good performances but defensively we were not good enough.”