RICHIE Wellens has asked for an improvement in Swindon Town’s ruthlessness during their remaining four games of the campaign as they aim to build some momentum ahead of next season.

Despite being on a six-game unbeaten stretch, Town have drawn four of those matches, with a plethora of missed opportunities at both ends of the pitch leaving them hard pressed to claim a League Two play-off spot.

Total domination was not rewarded at Newport County, a momentary lack of concentration cost Swindon two points at home to Yeovil Town and a couple more points were dropped following a mis-timed clearance by Ali Koiki at Oldham Athletic.

And while Wellens believes Town’s performances are much improved of late, with their fluid passing style coming to the fore, he wants to see that killer instinct unleashed more often in defence and attack from now until May 4.

Ahead of today’s trip to Cambridge United, Wellens said: “I always want my team to express themselves, and I think you can see that with the freedom we play with.

“What we are lacking at this moment in time is that ruthless cutting edge. I’ll keep repeating that, because in football you have to repeat yourself.

“Ruthless means defending set-plays, it means taking chances when going through one-on-one.

“Let’s finish the season on a real high – we’ve got four good games.”

While not mathematically out of play-off contention, the five points that Town are missing to be able to sit in the top seven has largely come from individual mistakes or missed opportunities.

Wellens highlighted the players’ desire to become better as a driving factor in reducing those vital errors.

The Town chief said he saw some evidence of that progression from Kyle Bennett during his performance at Oldham and has urged other squad members to follow suit.

Wellens said: “A lot of that ruthlessness comes from the individual. Some of the things that happened at Oldham and in previous games really gives me a lot of satisfaction.

“The likes of Oldham’s holding midfield player getting on the ball and us being able to take the ball off him, as we did for the second goal.

“And when a centre-half dives in, can you fake to shoot or chop inside – for Bennett’s second goal he did that, that’s ruthlessness.

“He took onboard what we said. But next, we might play a centre-half that stands up and wants you to get your shot off early.

“Being ruthless is about taking on the information that we give them. My job is to get that correct information over to the players and not to just make things up.”