SWINDON Town U18s boss Alan McLoughlin was delighted with the display which saw his side run out 1-0 winners against Northampton Town in the FA Youth Cup.

After a frenetic start to the game, Swindon took the lead in the 11th minute when in-from striker Sol Pryce notched the only goal of the game.

Pryce, who has now scored five goals in his last three games, lapped up the opportunity to net, in what was a dominant first-half performance from McLoughlin’s troops.

“I was pleased with the first half and we had to dig in deep during the second half, so credit to Northampton,” said the 50-year-old.

“They (Northampton) put us under pressure but we didn’t play quite as well as we did in our game with Newport, we weren’t as fluid.

“I’m happy with the character and the determination from the players.

“Sometimes you can’t always win and play wonderful football, but you have to have that winning mentality and I believe we have that, we have only lost three games so far this season.

“I think you saw why that is tonight, they’ve run, they covered themselves, they tackled and Northampton only had one decent chance.”

After Town went ahead, the visitors came close when Morgan Roberts was able to drive a ball in from the left, only for James Gillard to spew his shot wide of the mark.

Two minutes later, in the 22nd minute, Town had an opening to double their lead following some good work from Elliot Dugan, who checked inside to find Ralph Graham but the midfielder put it wide.

Graham had another chance to get on the scoresheet when he was picked out by White’s set-piece, but the midfielder could only find the arms of Adam North in the Northampton goal.

The second half got off to an intense start as Northampton looked to restore parity in the opening exchanges.

On the hour mark, Joe Blackwell was guilty of giving the ball away to the visitors before they worked it out to Dean Whaler on the right. After cutting onto his left-foot he unleashed a shot which posed no threat to Spencer Matthews in the Town goal.

Moments later Whaler, who was starting to grow into the game, had the ball in the net only to be called offside.

Swindon’s best chance of a second came with eight minutes left when midfielder Ollie Rejek’s drilled effort flew just wide of the far-post.

In the 90th minute Pryce almost doubled his tally with a thumping effort which rattled against the crossbar, before being cleared.

Town will now host Nottingham Forest in the next round, which is due to be played in December.