SWINDON Town chairman Lee Power has been urged to open his chequebook by manager Richie Wellens after the Robins’ boss announced his central defensive options are at an all-time low.

Prior to Swindon’s most recent League Two match at home to Bradford City, Wellens only had Tom Broadbent and stand-in Zeki Fryers at his disposal as centre backs with football league experience.

Yet, once Fryers went off after 40 minutes with a tight groin and Broadbent was thrown on, Wellens was left with Taylor Curran and Luke Haines as fit and available replacements in his squad.

Anthony Grant has filled in admirably for a handful of games, while against Plymouth, Town played the full 90 minutes with no recognised centre back in their defensive line.

With the January transfer window now open and four players having departed the County Ground in recent days, Wellens is keen to use that money to pick up a ball-playing centre back to add to his squad.

He said: “Our defence is bare bones, and it’s not just that.

“It has knock-on effect because we have to move Anthony Grant from midfield to centre half.

“The injuries aren’t just affecting one area of the team, it’s affecting two areas.

“We’ve released funds from (Sidy) Sanokho and (Gabriel) Zakuani leaving, but we will have to invest a bit more because we didn’t anticipate Dion Conroy being out for the season or Keshi (Anderson) being out for six to eight weeks.

“We’ll need to spend a bit more than what the chairman planned. We need to strengthen.”

The 39-year-old manager has already mentioned on several occasions that he has a list of potential signings he would look towards in January if necessary.

When asked by the Adver whether a younger centre-back from a top club might be a viable option to Wellens, the Town boss ruled out dipping into that particular loan market.

He said: “I’m not sure about looking for an U23s player, academy coaches don’t teach young players to head the ball these days.

“They don’t coach them to defend diagonals. We need someone that can head the ball and defend but also can fit into our squad.

“Zakuani was a very good defender, he could head the ball and defend the box really well. But he didn’t fit into our style in terms of playing out from the back.

“That’s no disrespect to him because he is a great defender.

“But, when we brought Zakuani in we could only get players that were out of contract, and that list was small.

“The list is bigger now.”