KATIE James said she doesn’t think she’ll get many better goals than her stunning 25-yard strike against Swindon Town.

The midfielder netted a first half brace to give the Cherries a 2-0 lead over their league rivals, but it was her second goal that was the pick of the two.

Molly Barron-Clark laid the ball off to the arriving James outside the box, and she struck it first time, with the ball flying past keeper Hannah Cox in the Swindon net via a slight deflection.

Speaking to the Daily Echo after the Cherries secured a 4-0 victory over the Robins, James said: “If I'm honest, I just thought keep it under the crossbar.

“I hit a lot in training and they do go flying over. So, for me to keep it under the crossbar and then luckily for me, it just flew in, so don't think I'll hit one better!”

(Image: Richard Crease) For her first goal, James flicked on a diagonal ball to Gemma McGuinness on the right wing, with McGuinness then playing back to her for her to finish past Cox.

“To be honest, I didn't know if Gem could hear me,” James said. “It's really difficult to hear out there, but she set it back to me. I just thought, touch and hit and luckily for me, it went in the back of the net.”

On the game as a whole, James said she was ‘really pleased’ with the performance.

“Obviously, it's been a really tough week with the midweek game,” the 29-year-old explained.

“A long travelling weekend last weekend, and I think the girls have done really well.

“We looked after ourselves this week, did the work on the training pitch, obviously got the result midweek and then rest and recovery. Today just showed how much that got put into practice.”

(Image: Richard Crease) The Cherries came out firing in both halves and arguably should have been further ahead at the interval but started the second period well to quell any hopes of a Swindon comeback.

“We knew the next goal was really important,” James said. “I think we were a bit disappointed, actually, at half time because we had plenty of chances that we should have finished.

“So the most important thing for us was to come out and try to be a bit more clinical.

“I think that third goal really killed them off. And then obviously Erin [Bloomfield] came off the bench and scored the fourth.”

Previewing the game, James had told the Daily Echo that she expected an open game with plenty of chances for both teams.

But the Cherries defended well to keep chances at a premium for their visitors.

She said: “I was a holding midfielder last year, so the clean sheet for me is just as important.

(Image: Richard Crease) “I think our focus today was really on the defensive side of it. We knew what we could do going forward, so we just needed to make sure we got the press spot on out of possession.

“I think we nailed it today.”

The victory keeps the Cherries’ momentum going as they look to secure the promotion that they so narrowly missed out on last term.

“Obviously, we know today was really important, it just keeps us up there and contending at the top,” James said.

“It's not season defining, it's a long way to go now, we've got the other side of Christmas, but it's a massive step in the right direction and I think as long as we keep playing like that today, then we've got every chance.”