RICHIE Wellens isn’t concerned by Swindon Town’s poor record against teams currently placed in the top eight of League Two, but understands his squad’s form must pick up sooner than later.

Town’s winless record against the division’s top teams extended on Saturday following Crewe Alexandra’s 3-1 win at Gresty Road.

It added to the club’s miserable run of late as just four points have been secured from their last five league fixtures – only Carlisle United have a worse form record.

Of the division’s current promotion hopefuls, Town have lost to Crewe, Bradford City and Newport County, while draws have been earned against Exeter City, Cheltenham Town and Plymouth Argyle.

That stat doesn’t concern Wellens, who has been pleased by his side’s ability to dispatch of team’s lower down the league table.

But that pleasure could be tested on Tuesday night when bottom club Stevenage visit SN1.

Alarm bells will therefore start to ring if tomorrow night ends in further disappointment.

Wellens said: “Last season, we beat all the top teams, and lost to those at the bottom.

“We’ve been away to Exeter and should’ve won, we should’ve won at Cheltenham too.

“You’ve got to get 70 points at least to get in the play-offs, and at least 80 to finish in the automatics.”

Against the run of play, Eoin Doyle deserved great credit for earning Town an unlikely lead at half-time as Crewe found pockets space easy to come by amid their extended periods of possession domination.

It was inevitable that the hosts’ relentless pressure would tell, and so it proved when Chris Porter netted the first of his two goals to equalise on the hour mark.

The 35-year-old struck with seconds remaining in normal time before talented youngster Charlie Kirk added to Town’s misery by netting a third for the Alex in injury time.

Wellens revealed after the game at Gresty Road that he has been disappointed by all of his squad’s recent performances – barring last weekend’s 1-1 draw at home to Plymouth.

He said: “If you take away Plymouth, our recent performances haven’t been good enough. We’re so far away from where we were at the start of the season.

“We were so deep – it was easy for Crewe to find pockets of space between our midfield and defence.

“We weren’t at the races at all. We will get a run going, that will definitely happen.

“But we need it to start now because we don’t want the gap between ourselves and teams at the top to get too big.

“We’re still seventh. And I’ve always said I want to be in the top seven after our opening 15 games.”