“THIS defeat gives us more time to concentrate on the real bread and butter of the League”

As Town fans you might recognize the above sentence.

Its something we’ve heard from many managers over the past number of years.

Success in major Cup competitions and Swindon Town have never really gone together recently.

If it wasn’t non-league Stevenage or Histon embarrassing us, it was rivals Oxford live on the BBC.

But since the Di Canio era took off last May, Cup competitions are now something to be looked forward to, not dread.

Di Canio’s record in Cup competitions is incredible since he took charge; we’ve now beaten 2 clubs from the Premier League and 4 teams from the Championship.

And that 4th win over a Championship side came on Tuesday night as Town beat Burnley 3-1 at the County Ground, a result that takes us into the 4th Round of the Capital One Cup for the first time in 18 years.

Town welcomed back Troy Archibald-Henville into the first team after his recent injury, and his impact was clear to see throughout the 90 minutes.

Throughout the majority of the game he managed to keep Charlie Austin quiet, a task most Championship centre backs struggle to do.

Jay McEveley also had his best game in a Town shirt on Tuesday night, assisting two of the goals and consistently breaking up any potential threat from Burnley’s right hand side.

But the real star of the past week has been right back Nathan Thompson.

When Paul Caddis departed early on in the season, a lot of fans were worried we’d lost a key player, and Paolo hadn’t replaced him.

Joe Devera started in that position, and did a good job, but that’s not his natural department on the pitch, but on Saturday Thompson showed everyone Caddis’s replacement was at the club the whole time.

Everything you need to be a great fullback was on show from the 21 year old, precise tacking, being able to read the game well, supporting Ritchie on the attack and tracking back to defend.

Of course he’ll make some mistakes, but over time he looks like he’ll grow into a top quality right back for Town.

This Saturday Town travels to the New Meadow to take on 16th placed Shrewsbury Town in the #stfc hashtag showdown.

The Shrews came up with Town from League Two last season, finishing in 2nd place, but so far they have struggled with life in League One.

Graham Turner’s side have only won one of their last six league games and are in desperate need of a result to kick start their season.

Last season Town lost the same fixture 2-1, which resulted in the lowest point of the campaign, and saw us sit in 21st place in League Two.

But by the time they came to the County Ground we were sitting top and managed to sneak a fortunate 2-1 win.

With Town scoring four goals in their last two away games and looking firmly back into their grove, I’m confident this Saturday we’ll come away with our forth win in two weeks.

Don’t forget you can follow me on Twitter @danjohnson_stfc.