Swindon Town Women manager Richard Wood reflected on a ‘much better’ league performance in the Reds’ bounce-back 2-1 victory against Ascot United on Sunday.
Wood’s side tallied their 12th league triumph of the season away at the Racecourse Ground against seventh placed Ascot United. With victory, Town sit just one point behind the FA Women’s National League South West leaders Moneyfields with a game in hand.
It’s a ‘pleasing’ result for Wood after last week’s 1-0 defeat to Maidenhead United snatched away their unbeaten record in the league.
“Obviously, there was a bit of pressure today after last week, but I think it was a much better performance from us,” Wood began.
“Taylor (Macdonald) got started with the goals with her free-kick. If she hits the target generally, then she’s got a good chance of scoring. And last week she hit the crossbar twice. It was a good position for a free-kick, and she struck it well.”
Back to winning ways 😍 pic.twitter.com/PXkT5pYPsk
— Swindon Town Women Football Club (@SwindonTownWFC) February 8, 2026
Swindon Town found the net for the second time after a scramble in the six-yard box was forced in by Annie Colston. Billie Haynes’ pinpoint corner delivery proved vital for the Reds on Sunday.
“It was a particular corner that we work on, and we’ve had success from it before. It’s not just a scramble, we try to create that scramble.
“We want to create panic in the six-yard box if the delivery is good, I think we’re pretty successful at doing that,” Wood stated.
“Unlike last week, we didn’t really get our nose ahead, which then encouraged the opponent. We did the opposite this week, whereby we discouraged them. So, I think that’s what led us to go on and get the three points that we so wanted.”
Ascot United have amassed 18 points from 16 games compared to Swindon Town’s 36 from 13. Despite the obvious gap in the table, Wood explained that his team stayed grounded heading into the fixture.
“We’ve got high goals, high ambitions, but you can’t get carried away with it, we can’t look at that. We spoke before the game. It’s three points a day, that’s all that we’re interested in, really. We can’t live on last week, last week’s done. It’s gone, all we can do is focus on this week.
“There’s no point looking ahead to the future too much either. It’s just about coming here and making sure we impose ourselves. I spoke to a few of the big players before the game yesterday, and just said you need to turn up with your persona, your positive persona. I’m pleased that they did that today.”
Swindon will use the momentum from their victory over Ascot to motivate them before coming up against Bemerton Heath Harlequins this weekend in the Wiltshire County Cup.
