SWINDON player-coach Adam Westall has called for some commitment to the cause behind the scenes if his team are to avoid the drop from South West One (East) this season.

Westall made it clear that while no one has given up hope of beating the drop in South West One East just yet, they have to be realistic about their chances of survival and they are likely to be playing at a lower level come next season.

The fly-half berated some of his team’s lack of commitment to training and to putting in the extra work ahead of matchdays.

Westall’s comments come after Swindon suffered their 15th league defeat of the season at home to Salisbury on Saturday – a game that they were only losing by two points at the break before ending up on the wrong end of a 17-10 defeat.

The Swindon player-coach admitted that Salisbury deserved the win based on their second-half performance, while going on to lament a lack of effort and attendance at training as one of the primary factors behind Swindon’s lack of success this season.

Westall said: “The effort on a Saturday is clear, the boys are putting bone on bone with the opposition and being in the picture, but it’s not quite good enough to compete at this level and that comes down to commitment to training and all the rest that goes behind a matchday.

“No one has resigned themselves to relegation, but I think we’ve got to be realistic.

“Our training numbers haven’t been good enough and everything you produce on a Saturday is delivered from the effort you put in behind the scenes.

“If we’re not training effectively or working hard enough during the week, then we’re going to get the same result on a Saturday.”

Westall does believe he has seen an improvement in general performance since a break in fixtures around the time of England’s Autumn internationals and the focus for his side has already partly switched to next season.

He said: “Since the middle of November into December, we’ve definitely got better. Those recent games have definitely shown that we can be competitive, but we’re still a long way from where we need to be, and the league table doesn’t lie.

“We’re second from bottom and in all honesty probably now relegated, so we’ve got to try and use the next eight games to try and build some confidence ahead of next season.

“We’ve got a good group of blokes – hopefully in the next eight games we can have some fun, keep the smiles on our faces and look ahead to see how we can be competitive at the level below.”

Meanwhile, Royal Wootton Bassett secured a narrow 16-14 win away at Trowbridge to reclaim third.

Elsewhere, there were defeats for Supermarine and Swindon College Old Boys.

SCOB lost 15-0 away to Sherborne in Southern Counties South, while Supermarine were heavily beaten 65-17 by Royal Wootton Bassett II in Dorset & Wilts One North.