SWINDON Town boss Richie Wellens is keen to see his team react positively to last weekend's hiccup when they face Plymouth Argyle on New Year’s Day.

Down several defenders after a recent spate of injuries, Town also lost their nine-game unbeaten run in League Two on Sunday after being felled 2-0 away at Port Vale.

While all had been going well for two months prior, the Town manager wants to see a similar reaction to the start of that run when his side began to wriggle out of a tough month of fixtures with a hard-fought point against the Pilgrims midway through October.

Wellens said: “It doesn’t matter what team you are, you are not going to go through the whole season with everything smelling of roses and everything going for you.

“You’re going to have setbacks, and what defines a team that has success is how they react to setbacks.

“We had things go against us earlier in the season and we recovered from it, so I expect us to recover in the same manner now.

“We’ll come up with ideas and see what we can do in terms of nullifying what Plymouth can do because they’re a really good team.

“But we still want to continue to do what we’re good at without losing that fluidity.”

If Town are to recover as their manager wants, they will have to record a victory in front of what is likely to be a near-capacity crowd at Home Park.

With the full opening of Argyle’s new Mayflower stand, close to 18,000 fans are expected to cram into the ground.

And while Wellens is excited at the prospect of sending his players out to quieten 90 per cent of those fans – Town have sold over 1,000 tickets in the away end – he is hoping the game is given a referee that will not be overawed by the occasion.

Wellens said: “I’d rather play in front of 18,000 than 1,800.

“What you hope is that you’ve got a referee that is not starstruck by the occasion, i.e. Bradford City away.

“There was a big crowd there and he thought he should make it all about him.

“I just hope he gets on with the job, blends in and lets the game flow, make the right decisions and don’t be starstruck because there is a big crowd there.”