SWINDON fly-half Adam Westall was proud to see his side chop promotion contenders Reading down to size with a 36-15 victory at Greenbridge Road.

After going in 11-10 up at half time, the home side ran riot in the second period to ease to a comfortable victory over a side who declared themselves as promotion candidates at the start of the season.

The victory moves Swindon up to third in the South West 1 East table, and Westall was pleased to be able to get one over on a team who believe they are going to be part of the end-of-season shake-up.

“We had a full side available to us for the game which was good, and we put in a good performance to get a good win which was pleasing,” he said.

“Before the start of the season Reading said they were aiming for promotion, which probably a bit silly of them to be honest.

“If you put your head on the chopping block you are there to be shot at, and we did really well to chop them down.

“The first half of the game was really competitive and we went in with a narrow lead, but after the break we took control and never looked like losing.”

The visitors controlled much of the ball for the opening 15 minutes and took the lead through an early Mike Grubb try as he raced over after collecting a flat pass. Rob Sweeney converted to make it 7-0, but the kicker’s restart fell kindly for Swindon, and centre Sam Wells was able charge over for an unconverted try to reduce the deficit.

Five minutes later Reading were penalised on the 10-metre line and Westall put his side in front, but Reading came back as Alex Dorliac was tripped after he had chipped ahead, allowing Sweeney to kick a penalty.

The visiting fly-half missed a longer attempt with his next kick, and he was made to pay just before half time as Westall hit the target to give Swindon the lead at the break.

Reading started the second half badly, giving Swindon an attacking position with a handling offence at the ruck and poor defending allowed centre Paul Wakefield to run through two tackles and touch down under the posts.

Westall converted and then kicked a penalty before Chris Greig scored a rather bizarre try in the corner as the home defence failed to deal with a Reading hack through.

Soon after, Dorliac’s kick just ran in to touch by the try-line before Greig could reach it.

This was the end of Reading’s threat, however, as the home team took over and Westall kicked a penalty and converted one of his side’s two late tries, scored by flanker Mike Thompson and Wells.