STRIKER Marc Richards believes building a fear factor for visiting teams at the Energy Check County Ground will go a long way to helping Swindon Town finish the season strongly.

Town have won their last four League Two matches on home turf and will fancy their chances of extending that run this afternoon when out-of-form Port Vale arrive at SN1.

After an indifferent sequence of results in front of their own fans earlier in the season, Swindon have really hit their stride since the turn of the year and Richards is keen to keep that going.

Town can boast one of the best away followings in the fourth tier and they took more than 1,000 supporters to Tuesday night’s match at Wycombe Wanderers.

Richards wants to repay that show of faith with a strong sequence of results back at home for the remainder of the campaign.

“We want the County Ground to be a fortress and for teams to come here and be concerned about what we are going to do on the pitch,” said Richards.

“The fans can certainly help with that and they have been turning out in their numbers most weeks.

“From a players' point of view, we can’t thank them enough for the support they have given us.

“They travel in their numbers on regular occasions to be at away games and it is up to us now to be consistent and certainly try to make it a fortress at home.”

Today’s game against Vale is a seventh for Town in 22 days having played on both Saturday and Tuesday for three weeks in succession.

Their four most recent fixtures were against promotion rivals Lincoln City, Accrington Stanley, Mansfield Town and Wycombe Wanderers.

An agonising late 3-2 defeat at Wycombe on Tuesday night meant Town finished with a haul of four points from that spell.

Richards felt Swindon’s performances warranted a better return than that, although the 35-year-old remains satisfied with the team’s current position of sixth in the table.

“It has been a tough month as there have been a lot of games coming thick and fast but this is the end of what has been a busy period,” said Richards.

“It is pleasing that the next game has come around so quickly after Tuesday so we can put things right as soon as possible.

“Our performances in the four games we have played against teams around us have been fairly positive. There have been some blips and we are certainly not the finished article but I think we have given a good account of ourselves in most of the games.

“We certainly created enough chances to go and win the games and it is just unfortunate that a couple of mistakes here and there have cost us a few points.

“We are in a good position and I think if we had been offered this position at the start of the season then we probably would have said yes.”

Richards comes up against a former club today and ex-teammate Tom Pope is well aware of the threat the veteran striker poses.

“He’s a natural goalscorer and has used all his experience to prolong his career,’’ Pope told the Stoke Sentinel. “I can see him going for some time yet.

“Not only is he such a good goalcorer, he’s very effective because he is also so strong. Get him angry and he will knock defenders all over the place. But he doesn’t run around like a headless chicken, he stays central and takes his chances.’’