Will Wright said that he had hoped Swindon Town had gotten over their frailties from set pieces following their 2-1 defeat against Birmingham City.

Town saw their Vertu Trophy journey come to an end after Ayumu Yokoyama and Harry Smith both scored to see the game level heading into the final minutes.

But then Alexander Cochrane swung a corner into the near post in the 89th minute and in a crowded six-yard box the ball struck off Smith to hand the League One leaders victory.

After the game, Wright spoke of his annoyance with how Swindon let in that second goal after they had done so much to improve their defending from set piece situations.

Wright said: “I think that the frustration is mainly in the second goal because it was our Achilles heel at the start of the season.

“We have done a lot of work on how we set up at set plays and I think we were probably close to double-figure games when we haven’t conceded from a corner and to see us concede like that after getting ourselves back into the game is heart-breaking.

“We were split into half-zonal and then a couple of markers on their main threats and I think the ball went over the first two zonal players.

“I am not sure what happened with Jack [Bycroft], it looked like they worked a block on him really well and then it just came down and hit off H’s [Smith’s] knee.

“The referee just said that he didn’t think there was enough there for a foul.

“It is one of those where we have to just go away and lick our wounds and move onto arguably the more important stuff, although it would have been nice to try and get to Wembley, we are where we are in the league.”

Town fielded three young academy players in the match, handing a second senior start to Ant McCormick at the back before introducing Harry Chard at the break and Botan Ameen in the second half.

Wright played the full 90 minutes alongside McCormick at the heart of the defence during the game and he was full of praise for the youngster’s performance.

He said: “The first goal was just a mistake and that sort of thing happens, I wish it was anyone but Ant to be honest, I wish it was me that made the mistake rather than a young lad in his second game.

“But sometimes these things are good in a young lads career and I thought that the way he bounced back from that was commendable.

“With the personnel he was up against today, he really stood up to that and I think that he can be proud of himself.

“I think all the young lads did really well, they look like they belong out there, they can navigate their way through moments.

“Sometimes you are there to give them a helping hand or a little ‘Well done’ or gee them up if they need it but they did really well.”