SWINDON Town manager Richie Wellens has promised his side to be a much tougher proposition for Plymouth Argyle this weekend when the two sides renew acquaintances.

Argyle romped to a 3-0 victory at the Energy Check County Ground in the EFL Trophy on Tuesday night and now make a quick trip back to SN1 from Devon on Saturday in League Two.

Both Wellens and Plymouth counterpart Ryan Lowe made numerous changes to their regular line-ups in midweek, although the visitors adapted far the better.

Town’s fringe players missed a golden opportunity to impress as the Pilgrims dominated much of the match.

Wellens will bring his first-choice picks back into the fold for Saturday’s rematch and has no doubt Town will provide a far sterner test to Plymouth.

“You see it when Premier League teams make eight or nine changes in the League Cup or the FA Cup – Colchester go and beat Tottenham – because it’s not a team,” said Wellens.

“It becomes a little bit disjointed from what you want to see. I get that, but the players can run, they can close people down, they can tackle.

“At times in the first half, our defence was so deep, their midfield cut through us like a hot knife through butter.

“They won’t be doing that on Saturday – no chance.

“Their players, the ones that came in, showed that they wanted to fight to try and get in Ryan Lowe’s team on Saturday, whereas I don’t think ours did.”

Tuesday night’s defeat was Town’s third in a row in all competitions following previous losses to Newport County and Bradford City in the league.

Manager Wellens admits his side are missing the presence of first-choice central defensive pairing Dion Conroy and Mathieu Baudry, who are both on the sidelines due to injury.

Other players, such as forwards Jerry Yates and Keshi Anderson, were rested for the midweek Trophy tie, and Wellens is sure Swindon will perform much better when they return to a more familiar line-up this weekend.

“There will be eight or nine different people playing. All of a sudden, that makes a huge difference,” said Wellens.

“Jerry Yates will come back in but there will be a lot of changes, so we can try and get back to what we are.

“Make no mistake about it, Mathieu Baudry and Dion Conroy have left us massively short in terms of getting our possession football going from defence into midfield with those little angles that cause teams problems.

“But it will be a totally different team on both sides on Saturday.”