SWINDON Town manager Richie Wellens says players with the ability to score and create goals will be his primary transfer focus over the summer.

Town have scored just 43 goals in 35 League Two fixtures this season – only tonight’s opponents, Stevenage, have netted fewer of teams currently in the top half of the table.

Midfielder Michael Doughty leads the way in the Swindon scoring charts with 12, but Elijah Adebayo is second on that list with five despite seeing his loan spell ended at the turn of the year.

Strikers Marc Richards, Keshi Anderson and Kaiyne Woolery have found the back of the net just 11 times between them this term, whereas Theo Robinson and Kyle Bennett have already hit the goal trail since arriving in January with two goals each.

Wellens says future recruitment priorities will focus on proven goal scorers, as they are the ones who can make the biggest difference between success and failure for a side.

“We have got players like Robinson, Richards, Bennett, Anderson and Woolery – they have to be chipping in with 50-plus goals between them in a season,” said Wellens.

“They are the bulk of your goals and if you can get midfielders chipping in every now and again, that helps. That’s what I want going forwards.

“I am not sure this club has done it correctly on the recruitment side. If you give me a budget, then I will spend the majority of it on goal scorers and people who can create goals.

“To get promoted from this league, you need to score a certain amount of goals.

“It is easy as a coach to set up defensively – look at when Woking came here (in the FA Cup), with five at the back, four in midfield and one up front, really closing the game out.

“What you need to do is score goals – any promoted team will score goals.

“Going forwards, we want creative players. Not just people that flatter to deceive, people with numbers to back it up. They are the players that will bring you success.”

A large number of the current Town squad are out of contract this summer.

In the main, Wellens says it is too early to open negotiations over fresh deals, although the Town boss is keen to keep the majority of his squad together given the upturn in form he has witnessed since arriving at the club back in November.

“It is too early (to start contract renewals). I have it in the back of my mind,” said Wellens.

“There are a lot of boys out of contract and what I don’t want to do is have a total overhaul of players because that takes time to recreate what we have already got.

“I don’t want to lose the spirit and what we have worked hard to get, because it has changed for the better. I want to try to keep as many of the lads together as possible.

“If we can add two or three players to that, where can this group take us? We don’t know.

“The players that come in have got to be better than what we have already got but we will try to add three or four.”