SWINDON Town manager Richie Wellens believes his side are suffering without a recognised proven League Two striker at present – but hopes that can be rectified with Kaiyne Woolery’s return to fitness soon.

Woolery has been plagued by injury issues this season and has been restricted to only four substitute appearances so far in 2018-19, with a knee complaint meaning he has not featured at all since October 23.

Fellow forward Marc Richards has his own fitness concerns and has been forced to sit out Town’s last six matches, and he is not expected to return in the immediate future.

Loanee Elijah Adebayo was available to face Woking in the FA Cup on Sunday after the 20-year-old missed the previous league win over Stevenage through suspension, but Wellens opted to let teenager Sol Pryce lead the line again after netting twice in that match.

Clear-cut chances were at a premium for Town against the Cards as they crashed to a shock 1-0 loss at home, and Wellens felt the outcome would have been different had he been able to field a more established figure in his forward line.

“If we’d had a top striker, I think we would have won on Sunday, because we had all the possession and territorially, we had more or less all of the game,” said Wellens.

“Woking had a slight threat from the counter-attack, but with the balls we were slashing into the box, we just didn’t have that little bit of cleverness.

“I would have liked us to run down the side of the centre-backs more, but we didn’t do that.

“Marc Richards will be out for quite a while, but Kaiyne Woolery will be back soon.

“I am looking forward to seeing Kaiyne – he gives us a different dimension and gives us that explosive pace up front.

“If you look at him, physically he is a man and he is very quick. I am looking forward to getting him back.”

Wellens conceded it was always going to be hard for 18-year-old Pryce to follow up his heroics against Stevenage with another match-winning performance in the FA Cup.

However, the Town boss’ preparations for Sunday’s game were not helped by the loss of another at-tacking option – Keshi Anderson – in the build-up as he could only feature off the bench.

“Sol Pryce stayed in the team because he scored two in midweek and he is a young lad of 18 on such a high,” said Wellens.

“I don’t want to be too hard on him as he is only a baby, but I was a bit disappointed in his performance, I don’t think he worked the centre-halves enough.

“Keshi Anderson went down on Saturday and felt his hamstring.

“We didn’t want to put Keshi on, but when it’s a tight game, Keshi is one who has got good pace and can stretch the game.”