Sean Wood said that his Swindon Town under-18s have belied their years during their magical run to the FA Youth Cup quarterfinals.

Swindon have made it through five rounds of this year's competition, defeating the likes of Manchester United and Sunderland on route, and now see themselves facing a local derby against Bristol City with a place in the last four and an away tie against Manchester City on the line.

Wood said that he has been continually surprised by the calmness of his players in the face of situations where many young players would have gotten ahead of themselves.

He said: “We have lots of belief, there is a real togetherness and confidence within the group.

“They are very relaxed in these big games which has surprised me quite a lot, you would expect to see a few nerves and maybe a few things leading up to the games that you question a little with them being so young.

“16-year-olds on the pitch playing in stadiums and you look at them sometimes in a game and they look like they are men when they are actually kids.

“When you strip it right back, what we have achieved so far is beyond what we probably thought we would in the FA Youth Cup.

“We will respect the opposition, we will plan properly, we will have a game plan, and then if they can continue to be as good as they have been then I am sure we will have a good opportunity.”

Wood added that with each player in the squad having trained with the first team this season, 12 featuring for the senior side, and the many journeys of the under-18s season have put his side in good stead for taking on Bristol City at Ashton Gate.

He said: “The league that we are in is category three, so it is lower on paper than everybody else, and Bristol City sit top of the South-West category two league.

“We have been competitive as a group of players, we have had to deal with a lot of injuries at the start of the year, and a lot of involvement within the first team because of the size of their squad.

“At the moment, we have everybody back and that helps with continuity, but we have had four players make league debuts this year and those additional challenges do help push players and groups on.”