Swindon Town’s Louis Thompson insists that regular run-outs for the club’s development squad helped him to produce the goods during Saturday’s 3-2 win over Bristol City in League One.
The 19-year-old, making his first start since the Capital One Cup victory over Torquay on 6 August, put on an outstanding display after stepping into the breach at the last minute due to injuries.
Speaking to the Swindon Advertiser about his sojourn from first-team duties and keeping himself sharp in development games, he said:
“They’re vital. You may not play at the weekend but you can keep your eye in by playing in these games.”
“You’re not just playing youth teams, you’re playing lads who weren’t involved at the weekend at these clubs.”
“People like Steven Reid and Zoltan Gera at West Brom, we went to play Bristol City recently and Flinty and the whole of their first team played.”
“It’s not like you’re playing weakened opposition, you’re testing yourself against top players and it just gives you that little chance to be closer to the boys playing week in and week out.”
After preparing to sit on the bench for the visit of Chelsea, Thompson who laid on the winner for Nile Ranger on Saturday is now bracing himself to face the likes of Fernando Torres and Juan Mata tomorrow as long as his body recovers from a draining few days.
“It’s never nice to see someone get injured, you never want that, but I’m just hoping I can do a job for the team.”
“It was a bit of a tough game on Wednesday as well, so it was all about recovery on Thursday and Friday and getting into it for Saturday.”
“Now it’s the same for the Tuesday game, getting the legs back to how they were before the two games previous.”
