Winger Ben Swallow hopes he's edging closer to his first league start for Bristol Rovers.

The promising Welsh youngster has made seven appearances from the bench for the Pirates this season, the latest for the final 23 minutes of their 3-2 FA Cup defeat by Southampton on Friday.

His only start for the club so far came in a Johnstone's Paint Trophy game at Hereford in September.

But with winger Jeff Hughes dropping back to cover the left-back position while Aaron Lescott is out injured, Swallow will be competing for a wide left spot currently held by Mark Wright.

"I've been getting on the bench quite a bit and I just hope I can keep playing and maybe get a start if I'm lucky," said Swallow.

"All I can do is keep training hard, keep my head down and see what happens.

"It's hard to keep match fitness when there aren't many reserve games, so in training you need to treat it as though it's a match."

Swallow, aged 20, was on the books of his hometown club Cardiff City as a schoolboy and made his first-team breakthrough with Bristol Rovers in the Carling Cup win over Aldershot in August.

He went close to scoring after coming off the bench against the Saints and said: "It looked like it was going in, but it was a great save by the keeper.

"It was good to have a taste of the first team again. I was nervous when I knew I was coming on.

"It didn't look as though there would be any goals in the game at one stage, but Southampton scored three really quickly in the second half.

"We managed to get a couple back and I thought overall we were a bit unlucky to lose the game.

"We were all disappointed not to be in the draw for the second round.

"It's important we bounce back now. We have a big league game coming up at home to Carlisle on Saturday and we need to win it."