Swindon fell at the first hurdle in the FA Cup, as Aaron Drinan's strike in first-half stoppage time was not enough to overturn early goals from Marvin Ekpiteta and Aaron Collins.

After struggling to handle the League One side early on, Town wrestled themselves back into the contest and were the ones pushing hardest for a goal in the second half, even if Craig MacGillivray did not have many saves to make.

Ian Holloway said that after the match, you would not have known who the League One side was, and Negru agreed, believing that being able to compete with a higher-level side in the kind of form that MK Dons are in will be huge for Swindon's promotion push.

He said: "I feel like the past four games, obviously, we were undefeated, before today, and I feel like we're building strong connections, not only in the defensive unit but all over the pitch.

"I'm enjoying my time so far at Swindon, and I'm building a lot of good partnerships. And hopefully, we can keep building on it and kick on.

"I thought we caused them a lot of problems. They've hung on, and they've got through it, and we're just frustrated with ourselves. But we just kick on and look forward to league next week.

"We gained self-belief in ourselves that we could compete with a side like MK Dons, and we began to express ourselves."

Swindon had Ollie Palmer, Jaylan Pearman, Joel McGregor, and Anthony Munda back in the squad for the match, and there are many more players who will be coming back from injury to assist them in a planned push for promotion.

Town are presently just one point off the playoffs and three points off the automatic promotion places, and Negru believes that was another positive that Town can take out of the MK Dons match.

He said: "We've had a lot of injuries to begin the season, so we're getting a lot of bodies back, with Palmer and Perman showing their capabilities on the pitch today.

"That is really good. It creates healthy competitiveness within the squad, and we can push ourselves in training.

"And more numbers are coming back from injuries and to fitness, and it just helps everyone to bring that added quality.

"Some players are back from long-term injuries. Some people come back from short-term injuries. So you're just building connections on and off the pitch and trying to improve on them, so we can get the three points when we need them on match days.

"The more bodies we get back, the more competitiveness we get within the squad, and the more quality we bring. And we are a great squad, and we can kick on to do great things. It's just a bit of self-belief, and we can do great things."