ROYAL Wootton Bassett head coach Alan Low hopes his side can learn from their defeat to Reading Abbey last weekend as they enter the home stretch of the season.

It was a hard defeat to swallow for Low’s side as they failed to score in an 18-0 defeat on the road and the Ballards Ash boss admits his side got it wrong tactically.

However, in their first season in South West One East, following their promotion from Southern Counties South last term, Bassett are holding their own in ninth place.

They travel to Witney tomorrow and Low knows his side must respond in the right manner to avoid falling to another defeat.

“One of the bits we have identified is how quickly we are reacting to things and our thought processes,” he said.

“Tactically, at the weekend, I thought we let ourselves down a little bit and that’s what we have got to address and learn from.

“This year was always going to be a learning curve. We’re not expecting to go up into a division and not learn.

“If anyone thinks they are the finished article then they have got a lot of thinking to do.

“They have got to go away and look to learn from games like last week and then that is what is going to help to push the squad on.”

Low will be boosted by the return of several influential figures to the side, with number eight Tim Gallimore having come away from his first start in two months unscathed last weekend.

And with the weather starting to turn for the better, the Bassett chief will be hoping the ease to the injury list will coincide nicely to create a strong end to the campaign.

“Last week, Tim Gallimore managed 40 minutes so we’ll look to get him involved,” he added.

“Ieuan Clements is back as well, he was missing last week, and Gavin Ougan is also back, having been away on holiday.

“Elye Darragh and Josh McCafferty are both going to play in the second team this weekend as well, so it’s good news to have those two back in the mix.

“We’ll just see where we are come the end of training and hopefully things are slightly better.

“With the pitches hopefully starting to firm up a little bit, that is going to help us.

“Going into the back-end of the season, we’ve got to be in a position to have everyone firing on all cylinders.”