Wellens impressed as youngsters take centre stage against Stevenage

RICHIE WELLENS saw his trust in youth players rewarded last night as Swindon Town earned back-to-back league wins beating Stevenage at The County Ground last night. TotalSport Swindon’s Ryan Walker got the thoughts of the manager following the match.

Two goals up within the space of seven minutes saw Swindon impress with some fantastic attacking football against a robust opposition. And Wellens admitted he was impressed with the style of football that was showcased.

“Tonight there was some brilliant football, some brilliant movement and some good goals,” said Wellens.

“When we were at 3-1, I’d like us to go and make t four or five but maybe that’s being greedy.

“I thought the way the game went meant we should have been out of sight. To be fair there goalkeeper pulled off some great saves, we hit the post and had some good chances,” he added.

“We just ran out of legs in the end.

“For the last twenty minutes we just didn’t have the energy and couldn’t we couldn’t get out.

“We had to change to a back five towards the end and we struggled with crosses because of the physicality of the opposition.

“We’re asking these young lads to do a lot and they aren’t used to doing that for ninety minutes. But I think everyone could see that there were some really good things happening tonight,” he said.

An attacking trio of Anderson, Twine, and Pryce, once again highlighted the trust that Wellens is putting in Swindon’s youth as the side attempt to climb up the League Two table. 

And when questioned on his approach, the manager said he will continue to put faith in the youngsters but warned fans not to expect too much too quickly from the youngsters.

“Take Matty Taylor out of tonight’s team and you’ve got an average age of 20, 21, and tonight we were up against a solid side who probably had around eight players with a couple of hundred caps to their name,” said Wellens.

“When you look at our players you’ve got Woolfenden in his first season, Twine in his first season, Sol Pryce on his debut, Kyle Knoyle and Ellis Iandolo are both young lads.

“And at the moment we’re asking them to do things day in day out that they’re not used to and that’s something we need to improve on.

“For all of our quality, which there was so much of on show tonight, it was great to see and what got us over the line is that guts, determination, and desire to hang onto the win,” he added.

Two well-taken debutant goals for Sol Pryce made the 18-year-old an instant hit with the Swindon faithful against Stevenage last night. But speaking afterwards, Wellens was fruitful in his appraisal on the youngster's approach to training. 

“He’s a shocking trainer, but he played a friendly last Tuesday and he was a threat,” stated Wellens.

“The options were either put Keshi [Anderson] up front and bring Jermaine McGlashan in. 

“And the way Keshi and Twine are causing teams problems recently, I didn’t want to disrupt two or three positions instead of just disrupting one.

“I decided yesterday that I was going to go with Sol [Pryce], we worked on our shape it went ok, then he joins in with the five-a-side his body language wasn’t great,” he added.

“He’s not a great trainer and I nearly changed my mind about starting him just before the game.

“Thankfully I went with him and tonight was brilliant for the lad. He’s a local boy and it’s a brilliant story on his debut,” said the manager.

Having taken the lead early on Swindon continued to attack as they went on the hunt for more goals. And whilst Wellens was happy to see his side attack, the manager stated his side need to do more to close out games.

“We scored so early, then we scored another an the players just got giddy,” Wellens said.

“When like that they do some things that I don’t want them to do but that’s just young enthusiasm and that’s sometimes difficult to reign in.

“Sol’s second goal was really good because he ha loads of time to think about his finish.

“You see some strikers where a lot of them just run in a straight line and then can’t get the ball out from under their feet to get a shot on goal.

“What Sol did was run across the keeper to take the defender out of the equation and then lifted over the keeper for a good finish,” he said.

On arrival at the club, Wellens stated his ideology to have his side playing high-tempo football. And on an analysis of last night’s performance, the manager insisted the squad are starting to adapt to his style.

“Well at the moment it’s just the start and at Port Vale, I thought we done that [style of football I want to see,]” said Wellens.

“I’m giving the lads so much information at the moment and it’s difficult for them to take it in.

“For example when we clear the ball our defence is not good at coming out.

“I’ve been working so much on attacking play because if we can score goals it’s a lot easier,” he added.

“The most difficult thing in the game is to score goals so if we can make sure our movement and timings are right then we will get a lot of chances.

“If you know that your strikers are going to score goals then it gives your defenders more confidence as well.” Said Wellens.