SLIMBRIDGE ace Marley Thomas believes the club can round-off a tough opening week to the new season by getting an FA Cup victory over Cinderford Town at Thornhill Park on Saturday.

Thomas scored twice as the Swans began their Evo-Stik Southern League West campaign on Saturday with a 2-1 comeback win at Paulton Rovers before a massive first home match of the season last night against Cirencester.

The Swans tackle Cinderford in the cup’s preliminary round, and Thomas said: “The FA Cup is great and everyone loves it. It is not the best draw we could have had but I think Cinderford don’t like it just as much as we don’t. I think we can definitely go on and win it.

“It is about whoever is on their guns on the day.”

But with a strong squad and a confident mood, Thomas said competition for starting places is keen but they need to keep their feet on the ground after last Saturday’s initial triumph.

Thomas, who returned from injury last week, said: “We cannot get ahead of ourselves. We have a couple of young lads and a couple of experienced players.”

Manager Freddy Ward started Thomas on the bench against Paulton but came on to help swing the game Slimbridge’s way during the second-half.

And he said: “I obviously wanted to be in the starting line-up but I knew in the back of my mind that I would not have been so when I came on, I needed to impress and show Freddy what I could do and hopefully get myself back amongst it (starting line-up).

“We started to get on top with an hour gone against Paulton and you could see that they were always going to get penned back in. When we got the first one, I always felt we were going to go on and win the game, which we did.”

Manager Ward added: “It was scrappy in the first-half. We had some chances.”