SWINDON skipper Andy Staff reckons victory over local rivals Purton would be thrice as nice this weekend, should they manage to pull it off.

Not only will bragging rights be up for grabs, Swindon are also looking to avenge their defeat at home to Aaron Lee’s men on the opening day of the season.

Staff’s side also have an outside chance of overhauling Purton in the table. This weekend’s hosts currently sit third, 18 points clear of six-placed Swindon, although it would take a sizeable victory in favour of the men from the County Ground to see the teams swap positions.

However, Swindon will not be short of motivation or confidence when they make the short trip east as they hunt down a third win in as many weeks to continue their climb up the table.

“They beat us earlier in the season when we didn’t play particularly well but hopefully we can beat them as we feel like we owe them one,” said Staff.

“They are a few points clear of us too so if we beat them we could leapfrog them and that’s our target – to play these sides, beat them one by one and slowly go from sixth, to fifth to fourth.

“They are a good side, they have got some good players. Obviously as we are both local we know about a few of their players and they know about a few of our players.

“We were a little but under par earlier in the season but I think if we play to our potential, we have got every chance of beating them. To be fair, I think if we play well we can beat most sides in our league.”

After a slow start to the campaign, which saw them claim just a single win in their opening five WEPL matches, Swindon are looking up.

Consecutive wins over Marlborough and Calne has put distance between themselves and the relegation places and Staff has challenged his troops to maintain their form until the end of the summer.

“It’s been a good couple of weeks for us,” added Staff.

“We have got 15 or 16 very good players in the club. We started a bit slowly, then there was a bit of bad weather around but it’s nice to be able to put a few wins together and get everyone playing.

“The confidence is flowing through the team at the moment and the more confident we are, the type of games that we lost at the start of the season will now start to turn into wins.

“We are in a happy place. We are halfway through the season and we’re looking forward to the next nine games.”