RICHIE Wellens is refusing to throw in the towel in Swindon Town’s quest to claim a place in the League Two play-offs before the end of the season, although says six points over the next two games are a must if that is to be achieved.

After two away defeats in the space of four days against Carlisle United and Stevenage, Town now play back-to-back home games on consecutive weekends.

Wellens’ side play host to Port Vale on Saturday before Morecambe are the visitors to the Energy Check County Ground seven days later.

The losses to Carlisle and Stevenage have stalled any momentum Town have recently been able to build up and leaves them seven points off the top seven with 10 games to go this season.

However, Wellens is optimistic some of that deficit can be made up in pending games against opponents sitting 19th and 21st in the table.

The lower of that pair come first when Vale travel to SN1 tomorrow and Wellens says nothing less than an immediate return to winning ways will do.

“Obviously, I’m not going to give up. We’ve got two home games coming up against teams that are beatable,” said Wellens.

“We are where we are for certain reasons – we’ve got a lot of players that are out of contract.

“We want a response and we want to keep the season going on for as long as possible.

“We’ve got two home games coming up and if we can get six points, then they’ll kid us again into thinking we can get into the play-offs.

“I’m experienced enough in the game to know what I’m seeing and I’m quite confident going forward that we can improve.”

Wellens is also eager for his players to produce a good response in order to repay the loyal backing given to them by supporters after two recent away days.

After the arduous trek to Cumbria and back on Saturday, Swindon supporters then had to endure a difficult journey and miserable weather at Stevenage, only to be greeted by flat performance from their side.

Wellens felt his players failed to produce some of the minimal obligations expected of them at Broadhall Way and is eager for the club’s fans to see better when they return to home turf against the Valiants.

“I feel really disappointed for the travelling supporters because the traffic was bad,” said Wellens.

“It was a shocking day weather-wise too and to start like that – the supporters didn’t deserve that.

“That’s why I feel let down because, as a manager, you can coach and you can put tactics together, but running around and being aggressive and doing the right things as a footballer, they’re basics – that’s why they are professional footballers.”

Saturday’s match against Vale will coincide with a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Swindon’s 1969 League Cup final victory.

Members of the team from Wembley – Don Rogers, John Trollope, Peter Downsborough, Rod Thomas, Joe Butler and Frank Burrows – will be in attendance, as will family representatives of manager Danny Williams, who died earlier this year.