SWINDON Town Ladies manager Steve Robertson reckons that his side have the mental fortitude to stay the course in their title challenge after they went top of the tree on Wednesday night.

Town were beaten 2-0 at rivals Keynsham Town last weekend but produced the perfect response in midweek as they trounced Cheltenham Town 4-1 at Barrington Park, moving a point ahead of Larkhall Athletic.

Ellie Maynard’s spectacular opener got Swindon up and running and after Beth Westlake and Michelle Rich had also notched, Chyna Collings also netted from range to restore the hosts’ three-goal lead following a Cheltenham consolation effort.

Robertson was delighted with his team’s immediate response and following Town’s inability to recover from setbacks last term – they finished third in the FA Women’s Premier League South West Division One – the Swindon boss thinks his charges have more grit about them this time around.

“Last season, when we lost a game, we’d go on and lose two or three,” said Robertson.

“We went and drew 0-0 at Shanklin last year but we’ve won there this season (a 2-0 victory on February 21) – I think that we’ve got a lot more mental toughness about us this year to stay above board.

“After losing to Keynsham, we wanted a response from the girls and fair play to them; we were disappointed to concede a goal but they’ve produced what we were after.

“It’s nice to be at the top of the table because we don’t have a game this weekend and mentally, if we’d lost another one, it would have been a big blow.”

Town will be putting their feet up on Sunday as they are without a fixture, while second-placed Larkhall, who are a point behind, and fourth-placed Keynsham, who trail Swindon by four points, slog it out.

Despite two of their title-rivals locking horns, Robertson insists that he won’t be paying too much attention to the scoreline in Bath.

He said: “I’m not too worried about what happens in that game on Sunday.

“We’ve got four matches left and we know that it’s in our hands – if we win our games, then we’ll win the league and all we’re worried about is ourselves.”