SCOTT Cuthbert has hailed Town’s “unbelievable” strike pairing, insisting they are the perfect duo to bring Championship football to the County Ground.

Billy Paynter and Charlie Austin have netted 43 goals between them this campaign as Swindon have taken League One by storm, and currently sit second in the table with just six games remaining.

And centre-back Cuthbert believes Town wouldn’t have achieved their success this season without a prolific partnership.

“I don’t know what it is but as soon as they (Austin and Paynter) play together they just bang in the goals,” he told the Advertiser.

“And long may it continue because the two of them have been unbelievable this season.

“They are massively important. Everyone in the team is important, but those two have chipped in with their goals at an unbelievable rate.

“Billy’s got 25 and Charlie 18. That’s more than 40 goals between them for the season and is different class.

“It’s what you need if you want to be a successful team. You’ve got to have guys consistently scoring and their goals can get us promoted.”

Swindon travel to Colchester this weekend on the back of four successive clean sheets on their travels, something which hasn’t gone unnoticed with the defender.

“Keeping a clean sheet is as good as a win when you’re a defender, so if you do both then it’s just brilliant,” said Cuthbert.

“It’s great for the goalkeepers and back four, and it’s a good habit to be picking up as we go into an important part of the season.

“If we can keep that up and then Billy and Charlie keep scoring then the results will be good for us.

“We’ve had some great results recently, but it’s not over yet. There’s six games left and we want to win them.

“And it’s a great position to be in because we know that if we win them all then we are up. It’s as simple as that.”

Cuthbert was sidelined for a couple of weeks last month with a knee injury picked up at Southampton.

And although the initial diagnosis suggested a long spell out with medial ligament damage, the former Celtic man was back in action much sooner than expected.

“I don’t like missing any games and it was frustrating to be out of the Norwich and Hartlepool matches,” he said.

“But the knee is fine now.

“It was worrying at the time because it is an area where you need to watch.

“I couldn’t walk right on it, but the scan came back okay and once the swelling had gone down I was fine.

“Hopefully I can keep myself okay until the end of the season.”