MARK Cooper says that he was delighted to have finally secured the capture of long-term transfer target Wes Thomas.

The 28-year-old striker joined Town on loan from Birmingham City yesterday and would have been eligible for last night’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy tie at Newport County, but for his deal, which keeps him at the County Ground until January, being completed late in the day.

Former Cheltenham Town and Bournemouth man Thomas has already had no less than six loan spells in his career prior to joining Town and Cooper is looking to his new frontman to add pace and power to his offensive options.

Cooper also expects Thomas to challenge Jon Obika for the central striking spot whilst Swindon are now also expected to further bolster their armoury by sealing the signing of free agent Nicky Ajose.

“Wes has all along been the one that I’ve spoken to the chairman about,” said Cooper.

“I’ve seen quite a lot of him and he scored two goals for Rotherham against us the last game of the season before last.

“He’s very strong, very quick and I’m sure he’ll be a good asset for us.

“I think we needed a little bit of pace and a little more physical presence. He’s 5ft 11, 6ft and he’s very, very strong and very quick.

“He’ll play down the middle. Jon (Obika’s) not fit at the minute. The challenge is now that whoever’s playing well will stay in the team. We can rotate and sometimes we can play two up front.”

Yesterday, Town also performed a u-turn on Jeremy Balmy, signing the 21-year-old French forward despite Cooper revealing last weekend that he hadn’t been offered a deal by the club following his summer trial.

Cooper seemingly confirmed that Balmy had been brought back into the fold to add another body to a squad that was looking increasingly-depleted midway through Tuesday.

The Swindon chief also said that his club remained keen on the signature of Estonian international striker Henrik Ojamaa.

On Balmy, Cooper said: “We decided not to do that at the weekend and we decided to do it (on Tuesday).

“With us getting a couple in, we weren’t sure we were going to get anyone in, so obviously it was important we tried to get somebody in.

“Once we get the players back that aren’t available at the moment, it fills our squad up nicely along with Wes and we’ll have a look at the Estonian boy (Ojamaa) this week and I’m sure he’ll do well for us.

“I think in our case, it’s well-documented that we had to wait until we got some money in before we could go and sign the players we needed or felt that could improve us.”