SWINDON Town Ladies manager Steve Robertson believes that his side will soon come to grips with their new division if they heed the lessons to be learned from every game.

Town, who were promoted from the FA Women’s Premier League South West Division One last season, are now playing their trade in the Southern Division – the third tier of women’s football in England.

Their first game of the season on Sunday afternoon – a trip to Charlton Athletic – proved of a baptism of fire for Robertson’s side as they were beaten 4-0 at Sporting Club Thamesmead in south-east London.

However, boss Robertson sees no reason why his team should be downhearted by their opening day defeat, as long as they strive to improve week-by-week.

“To be honest, I’m not upset by how we played at all – it was a competitive game and we never threw the towel in,” said the Town chief.

“When we turned up, you could tell that this was a higher level but we had a few chances in the first half and there were four or five very good performances.

“For me personally, it was good to see what we need to work on and where we can improve and there were a lot of lessons.

“For us, if we can learn from games and then apply those things the next week, we’ll get to where we need to be and I’ve got no doubt that we’ll soon be scoring goals in this division.

“We need to aim to be where Charlton are – and that’s off the pitch too, in two or three years.”

Town fell behind in the 11th minute when Katie Flack followed up a corner well and managed to squeeze a shot through a crowd of bodies, which crawled into the net.

Gemma Shepherd doubled Charlton’s lead in the 17th minute after a good pass opened up the Swindon back-line and the visitors went into half-time trailing by two goals.

However, the hosts doubled their tally after the break, with Kit Graham handing them a three-goal cushion with 53 minutes on the clock.

Three then became four as Charley Clifford’s long-range effort found the back of the net with just over 20 minutes to go.

Town’s second league fixture is a trip to Tottenham Hotspur, who they met in last season’s FA Women’s Cup, next Sunday at Brimsdown FC in Enfield.