Swindon Town have two academy players ready to play in the first team already, according to new boss Ian Holloway.

During the week Swindon’s under-18s progressed into the FA Youth Cup second round as they defeated Newport County 3-1 courtesy of goals from Ant McCormick, Miles Obodo, and Botan Ameen.

The new Swindon manager was in attendance for the game and said that multiple players really caught his eye as he saw them for the first time.

He said: “I believe that there are two who can play straight in my team already.

“We have a game against Tottenham coming up, but I believe that there are two who can come up and join in and have a chance of playing – possibly more than two.

“If you play too many at once and it goes wrong [that might not be the best thing] but I was delighted with the passion they had and the desire to win was excellent.

“To be honest, I want our lads to play like them with that freedom, passion, and controlled aggression that they had.

“I will try to play football where we have a lot of shots at goal, get crosses in, and fight for the ball in higher areas.

“Hopefully it will be exciting and I don’t want them scared to lose because this is an environment where I am encouraging you to be brave enough to fail but fail trying to be industrious, adventurous, and humble just like our club motto says.”

However, Holloway did stress that it was important not to drop young players in too quickly as it doesn’t always aid their development and they would need the right balance of players around them.

He said: “In my last job I played a 16-year-old, I had to get him out of school but he didn’t make it and has been let go – I would have kept him with us as I thought he was good enough. Louis Boyd.

“Now he is not playing, so did I throw him in too early because I wasn’t there to help him?

“I have to be really careful with what I say about these young ones but I met them today as they were on our training ground and I was so enthused to meet them.

“There is no fear in the young ones but you need a balance as when it goes wrong they need some leaders.”