MANAGER Richie Wellens was pleased with what he saw from his players in the first 30 minutes of Swindon Town's 4-2 victory over Burton Albion on Saturday – but says fitness levels must improve.

Jordan Stevens, Brett Pitman, Mathieu Baudry and Jonny Smith were on target for Town, who raced into a 3-0 lead inside 35 minutes at the County Ground and have picked up two wins from their three Sky Bet League One outings so far.

Wellens said: “I don’t think we played absolutely brilliantly but in the first half an hour we switched the ball, got our wide players in and we got our press.

“I think we scored two goals, maybe three goals from pressing them high up.

“We got the timing of that really spot on to be honest, within the first half an hour.

“They’re a good team and I think they pass it round really well, we were always going to have a moment in the game.

“We conceded the first goal just before half-time, which obviously has an effect on the second half because it gives them a little bit of belief. Then we get the fourth and then we switch off from the cross.

“They had a lot of possession in the last 15 minutes but we managed to see the game out.”

Wellens added many of his new signings are lacking match fitness, which meant the intensity dropped in the second period and allowed Burton hope of a comeback.

He said: “Mathieu Baudry’s not played many minutes, Jonny Smith was struggling all week in terms of his asthma and Jordan Stevens has played some under-23 games but you can see he’s flagging at the end because he’s not used to the pace of this game.

“Then Brett Pitman obviously has not played 90 minutes. He played against West Brom but he’s not played a league 90 minutes for probably eight months.

“It’s natural that your energy levels will drop. I’m just pleased we kept our distances.

“They like to play a lot of passes into the front players and if the space is too big then they can get runners off. They’re a good team.”

Town travel to Peterborough United next weekend.