SWINDON prop Gary Williamson believes the fitness work his side have got through during their enforced break from action will stand them in good stead going into tomorrow’s game at Reading.

Freezing conditions and heavy snow have seen the club’s last two fixtures postponed, meaning they have not taken to the field in South West 1 East since the 24-12 defeat to Old Centralians on January 12.

The Greenbridge Road outfit have been able to train in that time, but have been restricted to indoor practice at Kingsdown School where contact sessions have been at a minimum.

With the snow now long gone tomorrow’s game between the sides third and fourth in the table is set to go ahead, and Williamson is expecting fitness to be key on what is sure to be a wet and muddy playing surface.

“We’re all just looking forward to getting a game in after a few weeks off, and we have been training hard to try and make sure we have stayed as fit as we possibly can,” he said.

“We’ve been lucky in that we were able to train indoors at Kingsdown School, and although we can’t really tackle or anything like that we were able to run some patterns and also work on our lineout.

“That is important, especially at this time of year when the pitches are muddy and wet. As a prop I enjoy playing in the mud, but it is good to play on nice pitches too because it suits the way we play.

“The fitness work we have done will be important I’m sure, and if we can use that to our advantage we are confident we can get something from the game.”

Swindon go into the fixture without a win so far in 2013, and Williamson believes his side must pick up some points if they are to stay in touch with Reading who currently sit a place and 12 points ahead of them in the table.

“They have an advantage over us up there, and it’s a game we really need to be winning if we want to stay up there,” he said.

“When we played them at home earlier in the season (Swindon won 36-15) they were very well-organised and they had some good backs, and they caused us a lot of problems.

“We know how big this match is and we have to perform, and we’re determined to get our first win of the year. We didn’t play well at Newbury (Swindon lost 32-6), but there were some positives from the game against Old Cents so we still have confidence in ourselves.”