SWINDON captain Mike Thompson says his side let themselves down at the weekend as they lost to bottom-of-the-league Marlow 23-18 away from home.

While their counterparts are at the foot of the table, the Greenbridge Road skipper believes that he and his side could have applied themselves better to the contest.

“In all fairness to them (Marlow), I don’t know have they haven’t won any games yet, they were quite a good team,” said Thompson.

“We looked at the table and they have a couple of bonus points, so the games they have been losing have been close.

“I was talking to one of their players and he said they don’t know why, but they haven’t clicked together. Either way, we shouldn’t have lost.

“We knew it was going to be a contest, they had a lot of supporters there but I thought they were solid.”

With the festive break now interrupting the schedule, Thompson says it is important his teammates try and regroup for the latter stages of the season.

“We’ve had the same problems with people being away and people being injured,” he added.

“I’ve knackered my ankle now so it has been difficult to get a bit of consistency.

“I spoke the players after the game and I said we needed to establish what we want to achieve.

“Injuries don’t help, but we just need to consistency to try and push on.

“We’ve got the break now, so hopefully everyone will go home, spend a bit of time with their family and reassess.

“We need a break, just to get a couple of the players back fit and get everyone else settled.”

Elsewhere in the South West One East, Royal Wootton Bassett were the latest victims of Old Patesians as they lost 77-17 to the league leaders.

Bassett’s hosts boast an unblemished record so far, with 14 consecutive victories, which has put them eight points clear of second-placed Chippenham, while Bassett are in seventh.

The visitors got on the scoresheet through Chris Patterson and Fin Dewar, with the latter getting two tries, while Tom Fieldsend completed the scoring with the boot.

Swindon College Old Boys were unable to bounce back from their narrow defeat to Yeovil two weeks ago, as they were beaten 33-11 on the road to Sherborne in Southern Counties South.

Meanwhile in the Dorset & Wilts One North, Supermarine slipped to their eighth defeat of the season at home to Chippenham II, as they lost 17-24.