RICHIE Wellens described Swindon Town’s point at Carlisle United on Saturday as bitter-sweet, and will be thankful when storm Ciara passes over after strong winds impacted play for a second weekend running.

Much like last weekend’s home tie against Exeter, strong winds hurt players’ chances of stringing passes together as Rarmani Edmonds-Green’s first half volley was cancelled out by Aaron Hayden’s header from a corner on the hour mark.

A 1-1 draw was perhaps a fair result as Town’s defence generally coped well without leading defender Mathieu Baudry, who didn’t travel with the team after he suffered a minor training ground blow on Wednesday.

Proven goalscorers Eoin Doyle and Jerry Yates were denied their usual piercing runs as Carlisle’s point lifted them 12 points clear of the relegation frame.

Swindon meanwhile remain top of the table, though their lead has been cut to two points after Crewe snatched a late winner at home to Oldham.

Wellens said: “It’s a hard one, bitter-sweet. Did we have enough chances to win the game? We did and could’ve been two or three up by the end of the first half.

“It’s strange because we expected the wind to get stronger in the second, but it disappeared. It was a low quality game, and we looked like scoring when we strung passes together.

“But players took too many touches, three or four when it should’ve been one or two.

“I’m pleased with a point, because of the last 20 minutes. I told the players at half time that I don’t like the feeling of the ground, there is no atmosphere and today wasn’t a great day for quality football.

“It felt like Colchester, we could’ve scored two or three more.”

Town will have to regroup quickly with Tuesday night’s trip to Northampton looming.

The squad will not report to training on Sunday, instead a prompt tactical session will take place on Monday morning before the squad travels to Sixfields on Tuesday afternoon.

Wellens is hopeful the weather will calm down come kick-off on Tuesday, particularly given Town’s most recent three fixtures have been hit by poor conditions.

He added: “All in all, I have to be pleased with a point because we can’t get any rhythm into our game recently because of the wind.

“We played Newport on a beach, Exeter in the wind and the same at Carlisle. I’m half pleased with the point, but could’ve been a couple more to the good at half time.

“It’s a nice pitch at Carlisle, if you take the wind out of the game it would’ve been nice to play on. The ball spent a lot of time out of play, I can’t believe only three minutes were added on.”