Cheltenham Town forward Raffaele De Vita says he cannot wait to face former club Swindon Town in the first round of the FA Cup.
The skilful Italian spent two seasons at the County Ground, helping Paolo Di Canio’s men win the League Two title and knock Premier League opposition out of the FA Cup.
“I am very happy with the draw because I had two very good seasons at Swindon Town,” De Vita said.
“They are a really good League One side and it’s a local derby, so it’s a great one for us to look forward to.
“There aren’t many players left from my time, but I am sure I’ll see a lot of familiar faces on the day.”
De Vita joined Swindon from Scottish club Livingston in the summer of 2011 and his first season with the Wiltshire Robins turned out to be a truly memorable one.
“I came down from Scotland where I hadn’t played in many exciting matches and the FA Cup was massive for us during our promotion season,” he said.
“We ended Huddersfield’s long unbeaten run with a 4-1 win in the first round and I managed to score our second goal that day.
“I was playing up front and we had a few injuries so the bench was full of kids. We battered them and it could have been more.”
After knocking out Colchester United in the second round, Swindon’s reward was a home tie against Wigan Athletic.
“It was a sell out and the game was shown on Sky TV back in Italy, so it was the first time my family had a chance to see me play live on television,” De Vita said.
“It was another magical game and even though we went 1-0 down, everyone knew we had control of the game and to come back and win it 2-1 was unbelievable.
“Wigan had their full team out and we were in League Two, so that result gave us real confidence and we went on to win the title.
“We had Leicester away in the fourth round and took 6,000 fans there and played really well, but lost 2-1.
“It was just a great season and nice to play in such big matches. The year after we got knocked out by Macclesfield, which wasn’t so good!”