Swindon Town U18s midfielder George Alston explained that he was delighted to progress to the third round of the FA Youth Cup.

The young Robins beat Gillingham 2-1, which set up an away tie to Loftus Road as they will face Queens Park Rangers in the next round.

Alston scored the eventual winner in the 54th minute and he was pleased to come out victorious at a tough ground.

He said: “It’s always a good feeling to get through in the FA Youth Cup, it’s a really hard place to come against a really good team and we knew they would be good.

“Our performance probably wasn’t as good as it could have been, but the most important thing is that we got through to the next round.”

The Englishman’s goal was a poke through the goalkeeper’s legs in the box after good work from Liam Hutt out wide.

The Town player knew the result would come down to clinical finishing because of a lack of chances throughout the game

“I didn’t have many chances that game, I knew it would have to come down to one or two that I would have to concentrate on.

“But I thought Liam played a great ball in and I thought to just hit it on target and it has a chance of going in!”

It was a memorable run last season for the young side as they got all the way to the quarter final after wins against teams such as Sunderland and Manchester United.

With the chance to play against a reputable academy, the determination is there to try and produce another cup run.

“It’s always a brilliant feeling to go to big clubs,” the midfielder said.

“It’s like Sunderland and Bristol City [last season], we know they’ll be a good team but I think it would be a great game for Botan [Ameen] to play against his old club so we’re gonna put our performance together and treat it as a normal game.

“Hopefully we can go to the fourth round and have a good run like last year.”

Manager Sean Wood said that the team did well to advance because of the expectations to match up to the previous campaign.

But from the perspective of a player, featuring in the FA Youth Cup the season prior sets up a player quite well when returning to the competition the following year.

“I learned a lot from the run last season, it was a great experience.

“I think being a second year now means I can also help the first years who might not be starting as much and give them that sort of experience and acknowledgement.”