SWINDON ladies continued their imperious form with a 3-1 win over Newent

Newent’s defence were under immediate pressure as Swindon’s progressive play led to a goalmouth scramble. The Newent keeper sprawled but Vicki Stokes was on hand to put the ball in the net within the first minute.

Newent responded well, mounting a series of attacks that were routinely rebuffed by Ella Caldwell, Charlie Watson, Mary Goldsmith, Angela Cooke and keeper Alexis Hogarth.

Swindon overcame a number of free hits by stealing a loose ball from Newent’s left midfield. Rachel King drove into the D although her incisive pass was inadvertently spooned to Stokes, she took the ball down beautifully and smashed home in one motion.

The second half began with Chloe Sylvester, Lynsey Wall, Gemma Scrase and Rebecca Lightbody putting Newent under pressure with their constant running.

After temporarily losing Sylvester and Scrase to green cards, it would not be long before Swindon were back to full strength.

Their third goal came through come through Cooke’s great run down the left and via King and Wall found Stokes to tap-in at the back post to finish her hat-trick.

Newent pulled one back after a Goldsmith error, but there was no stopping champions Swindon.

Elsewhere, the ladies’ 2nds lost out 1-0 to Royal Wootton Bassett 2nds.

Men’s hockey

The mewly promoted men made the long trip to face Plymouth Marjon but came away with a 3-2 defeat.

Swindon set their stall out early, controlling the pace, and building strong moves, especially down the right.

The scoring was opened by the hosts. A well-worked move and a smash into the D, found the Marjon centre forward on the P-spot unmarked.

Swindon fought back, capitalising from a short courner as the ball was slipped left to Rob Riddle, who calmly slotted the ball home bottom-left corner.

The pace of the home side caught Swindon for the next two goals, both on the counter and offering the keeper no chance.

Tom Goldsmith gave them hope of a comeback in the second half with a goal following a a smartly worked bit of play in the D with James Young.

However, their hopes of securing a point were scuppered by a series of green and yellow cards as Marjon held out despite a number of smash and grab chances for Swindon.

The 2nds fell to a 4-3 loss against Minehead, while the 3rds lost 3-0 at Team Bath Buccaneers G.