Ian Holloway was full of praise for the way that Jake Cain performed for Swindon Town against Birmingham City and demonstrated his desire to be part of the squad.

Cain has had a difficult season in which he has largely been out of favour under both Mark Kennedy and Holloway.

Town’s longest-serving senior player has started just three league matches all season and has been left out of the squad entirely 12 times out of the 26 league games.

With Holloway saying that he is looking to move on any players who are not getting regular game time for both their and the club’s best interests he handed the former Liverpool midfielder a chance to impress in the Vertu Trophy.

After his strong display at the heart of Swindon’s 442, Holloway remarked upon how impressed he had been with how Cain had applied himself in the match.

He said: “I have to say that I thought Cain was excellent, absolutely excellent.

“He grasped what we did, he grasped what we wanted from that midfield line.

“I am picking him out for special praise because when things don’t go your way, you have to make a statement and he showed us today that he wants to play for this club.

“He took a hell of a knock on his shin and he wanted to play on, which is brilliant.

“I hope that you realise the pressure that they [the fringe players] must have put on themselves and the level of performance that they produced is very pleasing. They have made a mark.”

Chard made his debut as a half-time substitute (Image: Andy Crook)

The Town boss also praised the trio of under-18 players who were involved in the side, Ant McCormick from the start and Harry Chard and Botan Ameen from the bench.

He said: “I have said all along that I love that group in the under-18s and he [Chard] is one that had not played yet.

“He is a real, tenacious left-back, Billy [Kirkman] has got quite a sore ankle and that is the only downer from today, but the minute he got injured it had to be Chardy.

“I thought he did brilliantly with some of those long, raking balls and Harry judged them so perfectly time and again like a senior pro would.

“I thought that he [McCormick] played like a senior player, I thought he was calm and he did all sorts of things right, so I am not even bothered [about the first goal] and after that it didn’t affect him at all.”