PAOLO Di Canio was pleased with Louis Thompson’s 20-minute cameo against Macclesfield, despite the youngster’s unfortunate own goal at the death.

Thompson replaced Troy Archibald-Henville in the 72nd minute of the FA Cup first-round clash, making his home debut for Swindon Town in the process, and impressed his manager and 6,000 slightly underwhelmed fans with a display of persistence, perseverance and evident quality.

In added time he galloped back 80 yards to beat Macc striker Matthew Barnes-Homer, who had a 30-yard head-start, to the ball, only to watch in horror as his backpass ended up in his own net.

However, Di Canio refused to hold that against the midfielder, who he said produced the kind of individual performance that some of his more senior players failed to deliver.

The Town boss said: “Louis Thompson did very well in my opinion. I am sad for him because maybe he will be feeling upset, but I told him not to go blurry because he did very well.

“I prefer to have Louis Thompson who runs 70 yards to try to defend and makes a mistake in this way rather than a player who works for 70 minutes and in the last 10 minutes, when he gets a slap, behaves like a word – begins with P and finishes with S-S-Y.

“Then as a reaction they try to move their legs. A 27-year-old, 28 – they don’t use my club, they don’t use my squad to get fit or wait for Tuesday night for a big stage with Sheffield United.

“I don’t accept it. In my team, everyone has to play 100 per cent and give their best. They have to respect the shirt, the fans and the money at the end of the month.”

Meanwhile, Di Canio appreciated that the experiment of moving Troy Archibald-Henville into the middle of midfield simply didn’t pay off.

“He still doesn’t understand. It’s against my principle in football to control the ball with the sole of your foot because it goes everywhere,” he said.

“Even if you have a fantastic touch, there are guys around you. He is too slow and also square passes and his first touch, when he lost the ball in a wide area, it’s against my football.

“This is the limit. I tried to have a physical presence because in the past he played a few games at Exeter but not completely in the middle of the field, in a 4-1-4-1.

“I thought about the physical presence and the fact that he has a good pass when he regains the ball.

“Eighty per cent of the players deserved to go out after one minute. I changed straight away Adam Rooney that did very bad today, unfortunately, and he said sorry his performance was poor.

“For Andy Williams it was different this time. Last time he came back with adrenaline and atmosphere, now he had to give his best and he’s not fit.

“People think it’s easy coming back after four weeks. It takes another four weeks to get fit – the Andy Williams that we know.

“Troy felt something in his hamstring but it didn’t satisfy me and I didn’t want to risk Louis Thompson straight away.

“In the middle, thanks to the embargo, I’m not pointing fingers at anyone but thanks to the embargo – we missed the chance even against Aston Villa.”