SWINDON Town U18s boss Alan McLoughlin says he is happy with the progress made by his youngsters since taking over the reins more than a year ago.

The 50-year-old former Swindon Town midfielder took charge of the club’s youth academy back in June last year, and since then things have been going well.

On Tuesday night he watched Sol Pryce bag his fifth goal in three games to see off Northampton Town in the FA Youth Cup which set up a home clash with Nottingham Forest in the competition’s third round. While McLoughlin praised his in-form centre forward, he took a holistic view whilst taking stock and says the academy is going from strength to strength.

“He (Pryce) is obviously improving, he is a big centre forward and he is a local boy from Chippenham,” said McLoughlin. “Physically, he is a specimen and he works incredibly hard. He will tidy up his game and as you can see, he can mix it with the best of them.

“When I arrived at the club I worked with an age group who were quite weak so this is the remanence of trawling through and finding boys who came in on trial.

“They have limited academy experience and you can see that in some of them, they are quite a way behind technically and every aspect of their ability.

“Whereas some of the boys, like Luke Haines from Highworth - he has been at the club since he was seven or eight. We had two 16-year-olds on the bench, Rhys Wells and Teoman Atik. We try to get as much local talent as we can and get them in and around the manager’s thoughts.”

With all the youth players currently at college, McLoughlin says he has no issue ensuring they are professional in all aspects of their lives, including their college work.

After the 1-0 win at the County Ground on Tuesday, their manager revealed the players would face a fine if they failed to report to their lesson at 9am the next morning.

“They did get a flea in their ear about their college work. I said to them a pat on the back is only two foot away from a kick up the backside,” he said. “They have to turn up to college at 9am and not quarter to 10 because I don’t give them an inch.

“They’d better be on time or there will be a little fine, I call it a squiddly diddily and they know what that means.

“I used to get up at 6am to work in Portsmouth just recently and I’m a 50-year-old man so there is no reason why they can’t be in [on time].”