SWINDON captain Mike Thompson doesn’t want his side to be frozen in first gear again tomorrow when they head for Bicester in South West One East.

The Greenbridge Road side suffered 36-19 defeat to Banbury last weekend with Swindon conceding 31 points in the first half.

And with the temperatures hovering around zero at present, Thompson knows that his team cannot afford to get caught cold once again.

“Looking at the Banbury game, at half-time it was 31-7, we didn’t turn up for the first 20 minutes,” Thompson said.

“We let them run riot a little bit, but second half we turned it around, the physicality picked up and it was 12-5 to us in the second half so it was a totally different game.

“If we can do it in the second half, then we should be able to do it in the first half.”

Thompson hinted that the team will look at how they prepare for a game on matchday but is wary that staying out in the cold for too long could be counter-productive.

“Everybody has to do what they need to do individually to be ready but when we turn up, we turn up.

“We know that it is going to be very cold again this weekend, what we don’t want to do is be outside for ages before the game has even kicked off.

“We are looking at that (the warm-up) and how we want to get through it, when it is nice and sunny you can go out there and enjoy, but this is the time where it gets more difficult.”

The Swindon skipper also said that the team must be looking to target this game for a positive result with the Oxfordshire side sitting just one place below in 12th with the gap between the two just one point.

“I think looking at Bicester they seem to be in a similar situation as we are at the moment,” the back row forward said.

“It is one that we have to target and try and get the W out it that is the main mindset for the boys.

“We just have to target the ones where we think we can go away and get some points.

“I think that if we beat Bicester at the weekend then it gives us a bit of breathing space between us and them - that is the big benefit of this weekend.”

Royal Wootton Bassett will look to put their 36-12 derby defeat to Chippenham behind them when they make the trip to second-from-bottom Grove.