SWINDON Ladies brought down the curtain on their Premier Division 2A season in the West Clubs Women’s Hockey League with a 3-1 defeat at home to Firebrands 2nd.

Swindon started the stronger and enjoyed a spell of sustained possession but were unable to turn that into goals despite good work from Vic Stokes to put the defence under pressure.

The deadlock was broken against the run of play when a turnover left defender Angela Cooke facing a two-on-one against the Firebrands attackers. They duly capitalised, giving goalkeeper Alyson Kerslake no chance of saving the shot.

Swindon worked hard to get back into the game and Gemma Scrase was denied an equaliser by the post.

On the stroke of half-time, Firebrands were awarded a penalty corner and a clean strike pushed their lead to 2-0.

Swindon opted for a change in formation at the interval, and this nearly paid off in the first minute of the second half as Adriana Boullosa intercepted a pass to find Stokes, whose slap towards goal forced a fine save.

The hosts continued to press but all further opportunities were kept at bay by the resilient Firebrands goalkeeper.

Play flowed from end to end and Firebrands were able to give themselves further breathing space with a third goal.

Despite falling 3-0 down, Swindon did not give up and were rewarded when Chloe Lewis struck a penalty corner into the net to at least get them onto the scoreboard.

Elsewhere, Swindon Ladies 2nd avoided a bottom-three finish in Wessex Division 1 after claiming a 2-0 win away at their Royal Wootton Bassett counterparts on the final day of the season.

Swindon Hockey Club will be holding various events over the summer, such as walking hockey and back to hockey sessions from July onwards if anyone is interested in getting involved in the sport.