SWINDON Town manager Richie Wellens has urged the club’s supporters to keep the faith amid a sticky set of results for his side in recent weeks.

Town suffered a third home defeat in a row on Tuesday night when going down 3-0 to Plymouth Argyle in the EFL Trophy, having also been beaten by both Colchester United and Newport County at the Energy Check County Ground in League Two in September.

Swindon have the chance to claim swift revenge over Argyle as the Pilgrims travel back to Wiltshire on Saturday in the league.

Despite wobbles over the past month, Town’s start to the new season remains a positive one overall as they are only four points off the top of the League Two table after the opening 12 fixtures.

Given the fact there has not been much to celebrate on the pitch at the club in recent seasons, Wellens has called on fans to stick with his side.

Plymouth are set to bring around 2,500 travelling supporters with them to SN1 on Saturday – a match Town head into on the back of three straight losses in all competitions.

Wellens, therefore, says the home fans will have a part to play in helping Swindon get back to form once again.

“I’m just sensing a little bit of negativity coming into the club,” said Wellens.

“OK, we’ve lost a few games. Fine, it’s going to happen.

“This club hasn’t known many good times over six or seven years and it can’t be a reaction of ‘we’ve won today, we’re going to get promoted’ or ‘we’ve lost today, we’re not going anywhere’.

“It has to remain positive.

“It’s going to be a good crowd – Plymouth are going to bring quite a few – so let’s all come on Saturday, let’s get out of this rut because our home form over the last three or four games has not been great.

“I’m not bothered how many supporters they bring. It’s about us and how many fans we bring, what our fans do, how they make the atmosphere, but it will be a totally different game to Tuesday.

“We need to turn it around and we need the supporters with us, and hopefully Saturday will be the start of that.”

Wellens admitted Town’s performance in defeat to Plymouth in midweek fell far below the standards he expects.

Multiple changes were made to the line-up, with only four players remaining from the side that had started the previous league game against Bradford City last Saturday.

After seeing his fringe players fail to make much of an impression, Wellens says their performances answered questions from some quarters regarding his selection choices.

“Everybody can say: ‘Why is he not playing or why is that person not playing?’. Well that’s why,” said Wellens.

“I see them every single day in training, and the players that are in the team train better and play better than what we saw on Tuesday.

“The players that played on Tuesday haven’t done themselves any justice at all, so they’ve got a long way to try and get back in the team.”