SWINDON Town Ladies manager Steve Robertson says there is a lot his team can take from their pre-season defeat to Swansea City Ladies at the weekend.

Town Ladies, who were crowned South West Division One champions last season, have been getting ready for life in the FA Women’s Premier League Southern Division with back-to-back friendlies against the Welsh side.

Swindon travelled to south Wales on Sunday, where they suffered a 3-2 defeat at the Llandarcy Academy of Sport.

The Swans took a two-goal lead into half-time after Emma Beynon and Katy Hosford both netted in first-half stoppage-time.

Swindon were able to pull a goal back in the 58th minute when Chyna Collings netted in the bottom left-hand corner but the hosts reacted quickly.

Megan Franks saw her strike cannon back off the crossbar before Sarah Adams was able to get on the end of the rebound to strengthen the Swans’ lead.

The visitors scored their second in the final minutes of the match through Kayleigh Oliver.

However, it was not enough to prevent a second defeat to Swansea within a fortnight.

“On the whole, we are actually pretty happy with it,” said Robertson.

“Obviously, it’s not nice to lose, but the character the girls showed; resilience to come back from two goals down.

“We had four or five new girls too so we are in a bit of a transition at the moment and it’s about getting from what we had last year to the girls this year.

“We probably could have won it in the last ten minutes or so but one of our girls didn’t fancy a tackle with the goalkeeper. “There were times in the first half we defended and we were really riding the storm. For me, as a manager, that is probably what we will have to be doing next year to get through things.

“To see them do that in their second pre-season game; it is massively important, from my side of things, that they came through it together as a group and it is only going to benefit us.”