SWINDON Town Ladies manager Steve Robertson hopes to reap the benefit of a hefty block of winter training ahead of his side’s potential return to action this weekend.

Town have seen both of their scheduled fixtures in the FA Women’s Premier League Southern Division since the turn of the year postponed because of the cold weather and are eager for it to be third time lucky when they travel to Lewes on Sunday.

Swindon have not played since December 18 but have put in plenty of hours on the training pitch during their enforced hiatus and Robertson hopes that pays dividends as his team look to haul themselves up the table.

“It’s been a good thing and a bad thing. You can’t beat playing a game each week but hopefully with the work we’ve done, we can go into the rest of the season with a fresh start,” said Robertson.

“We have had a decent six-week block of coaching and we have a system now that we’ve worked on and we’ve looked to improve all aspects – attacking and defending.

“Ninety per cent of the players who we have been working with every week in training recently will be there on Sunday.

“That’s something that even in the build-up to the season we didn’t have so hopefully that sort of consistency can help us.”

Town are currently third from bottom in the table with just two wins from their 13 league fixtures but victory at Lewes would see them climb above their opponents.

“You never know how good the work you have done is until you put it into practice, so that will be the test this weekend,” added Robertson.

“It’s a tough game when you have to go so far away from home but hopefully we can get something. If we win, it will drag them down towards us a bit.”