SWINDON Town Ladies manager Steve Robertson saw definite signs of improvement from his side after they went down 3-0 at home to Charlton Athletic.

Town were humbled 4-0 on the road against the same opposition in their FA Women’s Premier League Southern Division opener four weeks ago.

Robertson reckons his team turned in a much better performance this time around as Town continue to adapt following last season’s promotion and thought Charlton had to work much harder for their win in Shrivenham.

“Charlton were definitely the better team but it wasn’t like they carved us open and played total football and destroyed us,” said Robertson.

“They had a lot of the ball and we knew that coming into the game, so there were no surprises, but the three goals they did score weren’t pretty goals.

“The first one was a mistake from the keeper, the second was a quick free-kick that deflected and looped into the goal, and the third came from a miss-hit clearance that bounced around in the box.

“It is not disappointing and there are definite positives from when we played them a few weeks ago, we improved dramatically.

“Charlton definitely knew they were in a game, which was a total difference to when we played them first game of the season. They came off the pitch knowing they had to earn that result.”

Town got off to a slow start at Barrington Park and found themselves two goals in arrears inside the opening quarter-of-an-hour.

Although his side tried to rally after that, Robertson conceded it was always going to be tough to play catch-up against such quality opposition.

“When the first one went in our heads dropped for about 10 minutes and then they snuck a second,” said Robertson.

“Once they got the second it gave them a bit of a breather and it became a bit of an uphill battle for us.

“But I can’t fault the girls, they all dug in right to the very end. They stuck to the gameplan we asked them to and if we can just cut out some of the errors, I think we will be there or thereabouts.”