TOWN Ladies are hoping tough tests in pre-season will serve them well for the big kick-off in a few weeks time.

Steve Robertson has lined-up his side against Yeovil, who play in the second tier of the Women’s Super League, Brighton and Hove Albion, who play in the Premier League Southern and Welsh Premier side Cardiff City.

Though Swindon have yet to be able to field their full strength side they have done well against the sides from higher up the pyramid, managing two narrow defeats and a draw.

Town have two more non-competitive fixtures to come. First, against Portsmouth next Sunday, and then Swansea the following week, before they kick off against Southampton at new home Barrington Park, Robertson thinks his side is in a good place.

“It’s been a tough pre-season in regard to the friendlies we’ve had,” said the Ladies boss “I’d very much rather we not make it easy and lose a few games than batter teams.

“We’ve played Brighton, who are the best team we’ve played against so far, they beat us 2-0 in the last 10-15 minutes.

“We played Yeovil who were a step-up for us as well and they just beat us 2-1. Then we played Cardiff on Sunday and we drew 2-2 with after being 2-0 down.

“I think the most positive thing is the people we’ve signed like Alex Hurst from Bristol Academy who is a Northern Ireland international, Abbey Picton from Cardiff (Met) who is a striker and scores lots of goal.

“We’ve retained pretty much everyone who we wanted to keep from last season. We lost one or two, Kelly Nightingale and Lisa Coe, but the ones we have brought in will only make us stronger.

“Last season if we missed one or two we were really struggling, this season we’ve got two or three player who now who are really pushing (the first team). The depth of the squad is really good.”

Robertson is also enjoying seeing the products of Swindon’s centre of excellence bear fruit. He has been taking pre-season as an opportunity to blood youngsters. One in particular, Mia Mumford, caught the eye in the draw against Cardiff.

“What was really positive was we had a young girl, Mia Mumford, only 15 years old, who played against Cardiff and scored the equaliser,” added Robertson.

“She’s come through the centre of excellence and it goes to show that the young ones are starting to come through now.

“It’s all well and good signing these fantastic players that have played here, there and everywhere, but actually that we have some home-grown ones coming through as well it shows how strong the club is."