Swindon Town manager Richie Wellens believes making sweeping changes to his side in the wake of their heavy loss to Colchester United would have threatened the trust placed in him by his players.

Town surrendered a three-match winning run last Tuesday night when they crashed to a crushing 3-0 defeat against the U’s at the Energy Check County Ground.

Wellens opted to stick by his team when they travelled to Cambridge United on Saturday as he made just one change to the starting XI – and even that was enforced as central defender Mathieu Baudry missed out due to injury and was replaced by Zeki Fryers.

The Town manager’s loyalty was duly rewarded as his team returned to winning ways at the first attempt with a spirited 1-0 victory at the Abbey Stadium.

Although Wellens would perhaps have been justified should he have opted to make widespread changes to his team, he feels doing so would have damaged the strong relationship established between himself and the squad.

“If you have knee-jerk reactions in football, you never have the trust of players,” said Wellens.

“If we take the last four games before Saturday, we have played four and won three.

“We are going to have off days, no doubt about that, but how can I get the trust of my players if I make big changes?

“They know that if they get in a good rhythm and they are confident and winning games, then I am going to stick with them. It was an easy choice.

“The players all put a shift in.”

Fryers’ appearance in the centre of defence was the first time he has played there for Town this season and marked his return to the starting line-up for the first time since August 20 following a spell out due to injury.

The 27-year-old is more at home at left-back but Wellens was delighted with how seamlessly he slotted into the middle alongside captain Dion Conroy at the Abbey Stadium.

“Zeki filled in at centre-half and was excellent. It was a composed performance,” said Wellens.

“He has obviously got quality on the ball, and with his extra pace there, we are happy to play that little bit higher up because we know that majority of centre forwards at this level are not going to out-run Zeki.

“I thought it was a really good performance from him.”