SWINDON Town U18s continued their hot streak in front of goal to make it nine scored in two games with a 5-0 thrashing of Bristol Rovers on the road on Saturday.

A week after romping to a 4-1 success at home to Leyton Orient, there was no let up from Town this weekend either as they were too hot to handle for the Gas to firm up second spot in the Youth Alliance Merit League One table.

Ex-Rovers youth player Elliott Duggan led the way for Alan McLoughlin’s troops with a hat-trick against his old side, while Tommy Ouldridge and Jordan Simpson were also on target.

McLoughlin, whose side previously finished third in the South West division of the Youth Alliance League earlier in the season, felt Town’s display was not far off perfection.

“It was a complete performance, the boys played extremely well,” said McLoughlin. “Everything that we have worked on throughout the season seemed to come together, not only on Saturday but has done since early November, really.

“Elliott scored a hat-trick against the club that released him and said he wasn’t good enough. That was great for him to go and score three goals against them.

“It’s nice to see players scoring goals and we only had 12 players on the day as one got injured in the warm-up and pulled out.

“To perform so well is fantastic and I can’t really pick one player out, just as a team they played really well collectively on the day.”

Town will bring the curtain down on their season when they travel to Stevenage for the final game on Saturday and McLoughlin hopes to sign off the campaign with another good result.

“The boys currently sit second in the league, they won’t win it but they will finish second if we get a point against Stevenage,” added the manager.

“I have been nothing but impressed with their attitude. With lots of them there has been disappointment at being released but the way they have trained and approached the games has been really professional and it’s the standards I expect of the players.

“That goes for the staff as well.

“We have all worked really hard this year and the results from the youth team have borne fruit from the hard work we have put into the season.

“It’s all due to their hard work not only in the games but during the week as well. They work hard in the gym and in their conditioning work, they are extremely fit and they listen to me and how we want them to play.

“We have changed formations during the season to develop the players and I have been extremely proud of them this year. They have been an absolutely wonderful group to work with.”