THAT was quite a weekend!

Like most, I enjoyed seeing many of our League One rivals having a crack at teams from the upper end of the Premiership.

Bradford’s already-famous second-half destruction of Chelsea wasn’t what is often considered a “battling cup performance” by a team from the lower leagues - this was a team from the third tier outplaying and, yes, outclassing one of the top five club sides in the world.

While Bristol City, Chesterfield and Rochdale weren’t successful in their respective attempts to upset the established order, they did, in the most part, turn in strong performances.

Taken together with the Preston versus Sheffield tie, it meant that there were six of the current top nine clubs in League One represented in the fourth round last weekend.

I believe this reflects well on the standard of football being played in our division this year.

The County Ground has witnessed many good footballing sides strutting their stuff in Wiltshire, in addition to our own team, of course.

I think most of us would agree that what Mark Cooper has produced is a team in which the ability to play and use the ball effectively is present from back to front, with even goalie Wes showing that there is life beyond the box for a keeper playing in the Cooper collective.

What Bradford did at Stamford Bridge was to highlight that coaches in League One are creating teams which can play football of a high standard, albeit with less expensive human resources than those above them in the league ladder.

This was no score-a-breakaway-goal-then-defend-with-Rorke’s-Drift-style spirit, booting it anywhere desperation for the remaining 40 minutes or so in order to hang on for a famous victory.

The way in which Bradford took the game to Chelsea reminded me of the way Swindon outplayed teams on their way to Wembley in 1969 and then did it again under the twin towers in March of that year.

The emphasis for Swindon then and for Bradford last Saturday was on having a never-say-die attitude and also a belief in their ability to play as well, if not better, than the opposition they were facing.

Back in the those days, most followers of lower-league sides thought their team were would always give the top teams a good game and had an even chance of winning.

Today, as the 'galactico' teams of the Premier League steam ever further away from the football mainland, rarely do the supporters of a third or fourth-tier team think they have a chance of beating, let alone being on a par in terms of performance, with their big-hitting 'betters'.

The irony for Swindon is that we have missed out on the chance of putting ourselves up against one of the big names precisely because we came up against a team playing the long ball straight up to a big centre forward.

A style of football so rarely seen in League One this year, that we were easily undone by a Cheltenham side in what is likely to rank as the worst performance of the season come May.

At least all those teams at the top of our division will br stretched as they remain in tournaments which will hopefully work in our favour.

Come on Bradford!