SWINDON head coach Sean Lynn says his players deserve all the praise after rounding off their stunning second half of the season with a 24-21 comeback win away at Grove in the final game of 2016-17.

The victory was Swindon’s seventh success in their last nine games in South West One East this season and having been in the thick of a relegation battle in January, they finish the campaign sitting seventh in the table, eight points clear of the bottom three.

After leaving themselves with an uphill struggle following a poor start to the season, Lynn has deflected all credit to his players as they left no stone unturned in their bid to turn their form around and beat the drop.

“It was an excellent way to finish the season and this run has been a great achievement from the boys,” said Lynn.

“We got together in January and talked about a few things. We knew it was a tough ask but they have shown huge character to get these seven wins.

“Full credit goes to our captain, Mike Thompson, who has led by example in every game and in every training session.

“Since I have been at the club, we will take a lot more from this season than we have from each of the past three.

“We have had to dig deep and show character and that was the most pleasing thing for me, how the boys stuck together and showed resilience to get through these tough fixtures.”

Swindon had to do it the hard way at Grove, however, as a slow start saw them head back to the changing rooms 14-5 in arrears at the interval.

Lynn left his troops in no doubt that their performance had not been good enough and they soon upped their game, scoring three tries to Grove’s one in the second period, with Andreas Bonicelli dotting down twice and Sam Williams and Jordan Sheppard also scoring to snatch a bonus-point win.

Meanwhile, Royal Wootton Bassett ended their campaign in South West One East with a 24-19 defeat at Maidenhead.

Having lost 20-19 against the champions on the opening day of the season, Alan Low’s troops again proved that they were able to compete with the best in the division as the losing bonus point saw them end the season in eighth place.