SWINDON skipper Adam Westall admits his team are striving to add impetus to their stuttering season but is far from ready turn his nose up at a losing bonus point at Leighton Buzzard.

The Greenbridge Road side slipped to a third successive defeat in South West One East as they were beaten 15-12 in Bedfordshire, following on from losses at the hands of Salisbury and Grove.

With a heavily depleted side for their trip to Wright’s Meadow, Swindon were still only beaten by three points and were able to salvage some reward for their efforts, but fly-half Westall is hoping they can stem the tide.

“It’s not been great in the last few weeks,” said Westall. “We really struggled with all of the breaks for the World Cup and we really need some momentum but hopefully we can get that soon.

“On Saturday, we had two lads phone up and pull out on the morning of the game, which makes things even more difficult.

“We had a lot of people missing anyway, like Jordan Sheppard, Ben Saville and Richard White, and then you have to have guys come in from the seconds that have to play 80 minutes of first-team rugby.

“But credit to all of the guys that came in. They were massive and they helped contribute to a good performance.

“The conditions were terrible. We had the wind behind us in the first half but we were playing into them in the second half and that’s never easy. Still, with so many players missing, we can’t complain about a losing bonus point.”

Alex Whitaker and Ollie Wilson both crossed the whitewash for Swindon, with Westall kicking a conversion.