Swindon Town manager Mark Kennedy has claimed that midfielder Sean McGurk ‘needs some help and encouragement’ with the physical side of his game.

Having missed the beginning of the competitive season with a hip flexor injury and then irritable scar tissue injuries, the Englishman made his first start of the season in Town’s 4-0 victory against Bristol Rovers on Tuesday.

He played the whole 90 minutes for Town and was key to lifting them up into second place in the group as the team look to progress to the knockout stages for the first time since the 2021/2022 season.

The Robins boss was happy with his performance but explained that physicality is something he needs to work on.

He said: “I thought on the ball he was excellent, he caused a lot of problems and showed us his skills.

“Off the ball is where we really need to help Sean, so I thought his performance was very promising from the technical aspect; tactically he was good, but from a physical aspect he needs some help from us on that.”

McGurk set up two goals for Town on Tuesday night, registering assists for strikers Paul Glatzel and Botan Ameen which helped his side break a 13-match winless run in all cup competitions, with the last victory being a 2-1 win against Walsall in December 2021.

It was in the early stages of the EFL Trophy tie where Kennedy felt like the time was right to remind the former Leeds player of his in-game performance numbers.

“I spoke to him after about 20 minutes, I called him out from the side and said your performance technically is very good and tactically, but physically, you’re the worst player in numbers”

“We need to get these numbers up I said but we’ve got 70 minutes to improve them so it was just a reminder,” he added.
“I didn’t actually use the word worst, maybe lowest, when you shouldn’t be in that position.

“He just needs some help and encouragement with that and it’ll come.”

Following a promising display, McGurk could be in contention for a place in the starting eleven against Cheltenham on the weekend as midfielder Joel Cotterill is away with the Wales U21 squad with them facing Czechia and Slovakia.