Alan McLoughlin happy with "battling performance" in Swindon Town's Under-18 win over Northampton Town

Swindon Town's under-18 manager Alan McLoughlin was proud of the determined display his young side put out in their 1-0 win over Northampton in the second round of the FA Youth Cup.

Town reached round three of the FA Youth Cup for the second season on the bounce last night thanks to an early header by striker Sol Pryce.

It was the only goal of a game that was less entertaining than the eventful 6-2 victory over Newport in the previous round, but no less important as Swindon booked a third-round tie at home to Nottingham Forest.

"It is a big draw, I think they're category two, maybe even category one. That's the second year on the spin we've managed to get through, it [has been] slightly more difficult this year than last year in terms of the opposition," McLoughlin said.

At the third-round stage last year, Swindon met QPR, also at home, but the west London side ran out 3-1 winners at the County Ground.

"I've been pleasantly surprised this year, I thought we might struggle, if I'm honest, with the amount of first-years. A lot of these first-years have only been in academy football two years.

"You can see that in some of them, they're still a little bit behind in terms of their technical ability. We try to get as much local talent as we can, develop them, and put them forward and get them in and around the [first-team] manager and his thoughts."

Joe Romanski, a centre-back that played the full 90 minutes on Tuesday night, has twice been on a first-team substitute bench in the EFL Trophy this season while Will Henry, Jake Evans, Tom Smith, Tom Ouldridge, Jordan Young and Scott Twine have all turned professional having been through the club's academy.

"It was a battling performance, not one of our better performances, but a grinding out performance. Football isn't easy, you have to grind out results sometimes.

"We controlled the first half but second half we dug in and showed our quality physically and mentally as well."