SWINDON Town manager Richie Wellens has heaped praise onto his latest centre-back partnership after Rarmani Edmonds-Green and Zeki Fryers’ outstanding performances of late.

Young Huddersfield Town loanee Edmonds-Green and the vastly more experienced Fryers are the 13th different central-defensive pairing used by Wellens this term – though that inconsistency has failed to detract from Swindon’s overall form.

Sitting top of the table on 66 points, Town are the second highest scorers in the division while just three teams have conceded fewer.

Fryers and Edmonds-Green as a pairing is still very fresh having only played together three times since the former returned from injury.

In that small run of games though, Town have won two and drawn one with only two goals finding the back of Steven Benda’s net.

Wellens has been delighted with both of his centre-backs’ contributions but highlighted the work of Edmonds-Green in particular.

He said: “Since Rarmani has come into the club, he’s been outstanding.

“Zeki has the highest points-per-game ratio - alongside Jerry Yates - of anyone at the club, so you can see how important they both are.

“Rarmani came in and settled in really quickly, he’s a fantastic kid and he has a lot of good attributes.

“He’s got good pace for a centre back, he’s 6’1 but he can leap. He reads the game very well for a young boy and his passing out from the back is very good as well.”

Should Edmonds-Green make the starting XI for this afternoon’s clash against Mansfield Town, it would be just the 21-year-old’s eighth appearance in red and white.

Nevertheless, Swindon has picked up 13 points since Edmonds-Green arrived in mid-January while the Terriers defender has also only been booked once in that time.

Wellens congratulated his young defender for adapting so quickly to Swindon’s style after an early-season spell on loan at Bromley, and said an early stumble away at Newport County was perhaps understandable given the circumstances.

Wellens said: “Rarmani has got a lot of attributes going for him, and him and Zeki give us a nice balance with a right and left-footed player in the heart of defence.

“Both are very quick too, so it gives us an opportunity to play a higher line like we like to do.

“Both of them have done really well since they’ve been together – I think it was only Newport away where that was a bit of a wake-up call for Rarmani.

“It was his first game, he’d only been at the club for a day or so. But since then, he’s not really put a foot wrong.”