RICHIE Wellens refuses to be too excited about his side’s League Two play-off credentials, accepting that teams above his own must slip up if Swindon Town are to poach a top-seven spot.

Four teams placed sixth to ninth – Forest Green Rovers, Exeter City, Carlisle United and Colchester United – remain within Town’s grasp with eight fixtures remaining.

Unfortunately for Wellens, Forest Green defeated Port Vale at the weekend, while Nicky Law’s injury-time strike for Exeter against Notts County kept Swindon’s play-off deficit to seven points.

Uncontrollables are therefore not of interest to the Town boss, who has urged his players not to get too carried away by last weekend’s big win over Morecambe ahead of a crucial trip to promotion hopefuls Bury on Saturday.

“We can’t control what is going on everywhere else,” said Wellens.

“I’ve said it for a number of weeks – we’re not really looking at the play-offs.

“We’re not trying to catch one of the teams above us – teams in seventh and eighth are doing that, and they only need one team to slip up.

“At the moment, we need three or four teams to slip up. If we were to win five or six on the bounce, that will change.

“But that is tough to do. We want to keep the performance levels up and not allow ourselves to get carried away with Saturday’s result.

“We’ll keep professional and try to do our best at Bury.”

In contrast, the controllables remain a key part of the Town boss’ route to success – and he has been largely pleased with work to break down opponents that choose to camp in.

Port Vale proved an exception, but Wellens pointed the fingers towards poor weather conditions on that day and said last Saturday’s visit of Morecambe proved a greater indicator of what his men are capable of.

He added: “The wind was eight miles per hour on Saturday. The week before, it was 80.

“Those conditions are tough to play in, and Port Vale banked in. Morecambe banked in, and that was a brave move.

“But we moved them about – we were energetic and caused them problems.

“We still moved Port Vale about and got in great positions. But our last pass was always overhit.

“Our diagonals were kept in play against Morecambe – you have to take conditions into play.”