SWINDON Town first team coach Ross Embleton thought that trialist Josh Parker did himself no harm by notching in front of director of football Tim Sherwood in a development game against Cheltenham Town yesterday.

Former Oxford United frontman Parker, who started his career at Queens Park Rangers and has also featured for the likes of Aberdeen and Serbian giants Red Star Belgrade, trained with Swindon on Monday and then notched the equaliser in Town’s 1-1 draw at Cheltenham’s training ground, despite recently signing for National League Wealdstone on a non-contract basis.

Only time will tell if Sherwood decides that the 26-year-old, who has 22 caps for the Antigua and Barbuda national team and has even appeared as a contestant on popular reality TV cooking show Couples Come Dine With Me, has what it takes to add an extra ingredient to Swindon’s melting pot.

“I thought he worked hard and he took his goal well,” said Embleton.

“We’ve had one or two trialists in this group this year that have scored a couple of goals, so it can never do you any harm when you come on trial as a centre-forward and put the ball in the goal.

“Obviously, what happens off the back of (yesterday) will remain a decision that Tim will take a look at.

“What I want to see, as a coach, or what the club wants to see is probably somebody that’s going to come in and score a lot of goals but you have to look at a variation of things.

“What are they like physically? What are they like around the group when you see them mixing with other players – because that’s so important – and then ultimately, what they go and do when they’re out on the pitch.

“So it’s what their work-rate’s like, the type of runs that they make, how they hold the ball up, are they of benefit to the team when we’re under a little pressure?

“All of those sorts of things will add to it and then, when they go back in and they train with the more established pros and the first-team group, can they do it at that level as well, because it’s okay performing in a one-off environment but you’ve got to be able to do it against established League One footballers as well.

“From my perspective and from Luke (Williams’) perspective, we’re there to work with the players alongside Tim when they come to the group and what happens to those and who they are and how many we’re aiming to sign is not something that I’m directly involved in.”

Embleton also confirmed that Jonathan Obika and Bradley Barry, who have hamstring and ankle injuries respectively, are yet to return to training. Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill and Ellis Iandolo are still yet to take part in full sessions.