DAVID Farrell is keen to end Swindon Town U18s’ turbulent six-week period on Saturday when travelling to Plymouth Argyle for their latest Youth Alliance South West task.

Since Town’s youngsters bagged a remarkable last-minute 4-3 win over Forest Green Rovers on September 14 at Cirencester’s Royal Agriculture University, performances have been of the mixed variety.

From five league games, only Yeovil Town have been defeated – three league points out of a possible 15 have been secured.

In addition, Oxford United caused the academy’s League Cup exit at the second round before Bristol Rovers netted three goals in four minutes to dump Farrell’s side out of the FA Youth Cup at the County Ground on Tuesday night.

It makes for grim reading. But after suffering a 4-1 defeat at home to Argyle in early September, Farrell is confident his youngsters will be keen to make amends.

And a win could be vital with regards to Town’s hopes of playing in Merit League I during the second part of this season, particularly given Argyle – top of the Merit League II qualifying frame – are level on points with Town and hold a game in hand.

Farrell said: “It was another below-par performance when we last faced Plymouth.

“In this league, it’s about who puts in a good performance on the day. And it will have to be us because there are a lot of players looking on from the bench that might now get their chance.

“They have to take the negative feelings from Tuesday and turn in into positivity, we talked about that in the changing room after the game.

“To be able to learn from a defeat like Tuesday’s is really character building, and we’ve got lots of tough games coming up in the league.

“Players have two years as a scholar, but they haven’t really. It’s game to game – you have to develop quickly.”

Former Aston Villa player Farrell revealed his youngsters were disappointed by their FA Youth Cup exit on Tuesday.

Despite Harry Parsons' goal in the first half to establish the lead, Kieran Phillips’

brace coupled with Ollie Hulbert’s strike sent Rovers through.

Farrell added: “All players were extremely disappointed. We conceded a lot of possession and had a decent defensive shape to us.

“But we kept inviting them in, and that cost us in the end. We can’t keep sitting off teams all the time, you have to go to the ball.

“It was lovely to see plenty of people turn up – players don’t really have much experience of playing in front of a crowd.

“At their age, it goes one way or the other – they either get spurred on by the crowd or they don’t. And I think it was a bit of the latter on Tuesday.”