SWINDON Town manager Richie Wellens felt his forward-thinking players let his side down this afternoon as their League Two play-off hopes were further hurt by a lacklustre goalless draw at home to Port Vale.

Town have now taken just one point from their last three matches as they drop a place to 13th in the table, seven points adrift of the top seven with nine games to go.

A strong wind caused problems for both sides at the Energy Check County Ground and there was little in the way of genuine quality on offer throughout the 90 minutes.

Town benefitted from having the gale behind them in the first half but failed to muster a shot on target before the break.

They actually played much better in the second 45 minutes and regularly looked like opening up the Valiants, only to be foiled by their own lack of penetration.

Despite the low-quality of the game overall, Wellens saw good signs from his side – that was until they got the ball in the final third.

“I saw one team that was trying to play, trying to pass the ball and be positive in really difficult conditions,” said Wellens.

“And I saw another team, who after 38 seconds at their first goal kick, tried to waste time and tried to break up the game at every opportunity.

“I knew we would play better in the second half against the wind, but I thought we passed the ball around really well until the final third, where our forward players let us down.

“The amount of times we found a number 10 or a player in a pocket of space on the half-turn to play the final pass was a lot in the first half.

“We played some good football in the first half but then just over-hit the final pass.

“I know it is hard in difficult conditions, and when Port Vale had the wind in the second half, they had one shot on goal as well.

“It is not ideal in those conditions, but our forward-thinking players, our quality players, let us down today.”

Wellens felt the performance was much more positive than the one produced by his side when they went down 2-0 at Stevenage last Tuesday night.

The Town boss was therefore left to reflect on what might have been as his side failed to arrest their recent dip in form.

“I thought we defended well and in the second half, we got in better situations, but we just didn’t take them or find the final pass. That is frustrating,” said Wellens.

“We didn’t play at all against Stevenage – we got sucked into playing the same way as they did.

“But we did a lot of work on our passing and creating angles to get comfortable possession in the final third.

“I thought that worked really well, but there was a lack of quality in the final third.”