SWINDON Town Ladies suffered a disappointing loss on penalties to West Ham in the FA Women’s Premier League Plate this afternoon.

After falling behind at the end of the first half at Thurrock, a Georgia Walters double put Town in the lead with 10 minutes left to play.

But deep into injury time, West Ham equalised from a free-kick, which Town manager Steve Robertson thought was questionable, before snatching the honours on spot-kicks.

“I’m disappointed but it doesn’t help when the person with the whistle gives away a free kick on the off-chance,'' said Robertson.

“It was almost as if she (The referee) decided to give them one more roll of the dice before the game was finished.

“I hate to moan about officials, but at the end of the day, they get paid to do a job in the middle of the pitch.

After going through extra time without scoring the match went to the shootout only for Town to lose 3-2, but despite the defeat, Robertson is taking positives from the game.

“I’ve learned a lot about the team today. We had a really slow start but in the second half and extra time we were really good and probably the only side who were looking to go and win it,” he added.

“That shows how far we have come that we are going toe to toe in this league. We looked like the team more likely to get something.”

Robertson was impressed by debutant Steph Houston, who was promoted from the development side.

“We had one making her debut today, she came on and made a real difference and added energy to the team,” he added.

“We are still missing one or two, but it’s great to get a few of the younger ones in and start building the squad properly, it’s all positive.

“The first 45 minutes were poor so we need to learn from that, I firmly believe we can get two wins from West Ham in the league now.”