FOR Town stopper Wes Foderingham, his team’s high-flying position has come as pleasant surprise.

Having missed out on the play-off places last season by some distance and with a summer of understated transfer business, little was expected of Mark Cooper’s side before this campaign kicked off.

Along with skipper Nathan Thompson, Foderingham is the longest serving of Swindon’s current first team and has been through ups and downs with the club.

It makes the 23-year-old well-suited to judge the merits of the current crop and before the season began, he was not anticipating them to be as well-placed as they are.

Asked whether he was expecting such success at this point, Foderingham said: “If I’m honest, no. I don’t think anyone was expecting it really.

“I think if you offered us a play-off place at the start of the season, we’d have bitten your hand off for it. To be second is a massive achievement.

“But we’re not at the halfway point yet, there’s still a long way to go. We’ve just keep our feet on the ground, keep performing, take each game as it comes and hopefully at the end of the season we’ll be up there.”

Such mature words belie Foderingham’s relatively tender age. Considering what the keeper has enjoyed and endured in his time at Town, he feels a responsibility to use his experience to benefit others in the Swindon squad.

“I’ve been through three or four seasons now, so I have certain amount of experience that some of the boys don’t have,” he added.

“I’ve been in the play-offs and I know the feelings around that as well. I’ve been in a high-pressure environment, so it helps where in games and we’re under the cosh a little bit, you can help the younger boys out.”

For those words of advice, Foderingham keeps it simple, explaining: “It’s just the basics. If you’re not having the best day at the office, do the simple things right and try to build from there.”