Swindon Town women exited the FA Women’s National League Cup as they lost 3-0 to AFC Bournemouth at the Nigel Eady County Ground.
Richard Wood’s side exited the competition in just their second game of the year, having been beaten in the Adobe Women’s FA Cup by Charlton Athletic.
The Cherries opened the scoring via forward Sophie Quirk, who went on to score a second with an outstanding free kick.
Richard Wood praised Quirk’s performance, “I think Sophie Quirk’s a bit of a cheat code for them, a wonderful player.
“Most of the problems that they caused us came through Sophie. Even though I thought Lanes [Helena Diaz-Butcher] had a great game against her, made it really, really difficult for her.
“She’s relentless, and she’s got lots of quality, I mean her free kick’s a joke really.”
The composure from Sophie 🤌
— AFC Bournemouth Women (@AFCBournemouthW) January 25, 2026
Highlights from today's win at Swindon are now available via AFCBTV 🍿
Prior to the Reds’ two cup games to kick off the year, they were on a winning streak of 20 games remaining one of just six teams in the FA Women’s National League to be unbeaten in league competition.
The Reds’ run in the competition saw them make it to the final eight out of 72 National League teams and manager Wood expressed his pride at the achievement despite a difficult start to the year: “We have to look back with a lot of pride on the fact that we’ve competed with 72 other National League teams, in the Premier part of it, qualified for the Cup, got through to a quarter-final, last at eight within 72 National League teams.
“The girls have done brilliantly, and we’ve spoken about January’s going to be really difficult because we’ve got these two games and they’ve really stuck together, they’ve not got to each other on the pitch. So yeah, I’m pleased with that.”
Swindon were without their captain and top goal scorer, Annie Colston, on Sunday afternoon as Helena Diaz-Butcher led the side out in their first home game of the year.
Despite the absence of Colston, the Town boss expressed his delight at the depth and experience within the dressing room, “We’re lucky here in Gypsy [Viveash], in Annie and in Lanes. We’ve got three players with over 100 caps, who know what it means to wear the shirt.
“Also players who lead by example with their attitude, but within the group as well, we’ve got other leaders. We’ve got quiet leaders like Sarah King who leads by everything that she does.
“We’ve got Biff [Sahara Osborne-Ricketts] there, who’s a natural leader and a talker, we’re lucky to have Annie, Lanes and Gypsy as real players that know where this club comes from, where we’ve been and where we’re looking to get to.
“They’re the ones that have stepped up and improved as the team has improved and are still here, so it’s appropriate that they lead the group because it means something to them, like it means something to me.”
