SWINDON Town have started the season better than many at the club had predicted, according to Paolo Di Canio, but the Robins boss’ own ambitions have yet to be satiated.

Town sit fourth in the League One table following their 1-0 win at Shrewsbury on Saturday, as Simon Ferry scored the only goal of a scrappy game in Shropshire.

Less than a month ago, Di Canio told the local press that he would be happy to see his side sitting in a top-six or top-eight position come the end of October, at which time he said his players would know each other and his own methods well enough to begin a speedy rise up the division.

However, in half the time Swindon have doubled expectations in Wiltshire by winning three matches in a row in the league and now find themselves hanging onto the coattails of second-placed Notts County, who lead the Robins by just a single point in a congested top seven.

And while Di Canio accepted that, for some, Town are way ahead of schedule, the Italian suggested that he had secretly always been aiming higher than what was publicly stated.

“We should have a few more points,” he told the Advertiser. “But in a realistic way, not in the way we lost points, our general position I think everybody – maybe myself not completely but everybody who signed at the beginning of season – thinks is better than we thought. “In the way we reached this level, in the period of the season we are in and the ways I can see my team improve I can tell you I’m very happy.

“I told my players to try to get as many points as they can now and not to have regrets. “Our target doesn’t change but the fact that we are closer than what we thought is something which can encourage us and help us keep going and believe in what we are doing.

“When I started it was obvious that, even if I played in this league with 12-year-old kids, I want to stay at the top.

“But we have to be realistic – to build a team, six players, another five two or three weeks ago – is not easy.

“It’s not easy to change and then rotate the players after a fantastic game in the cup. It’s not easy.”