SWINDON Town manager Richie Wellens says his side must focus on controlling what they are able to and not worry about the poor record of teams gone by as his players travel to the Jonny-Rocks Stadium to take on Cheltenham Town this afternoon.

The County Ground outfit have never beaten their west-country rivals away in seven attempts – Swindon’s best result came in a 1-1 draw nearly 12 years to the day as Blair Sturrock’s opener was cancelled out by Ashley Vincent late on.

But with Wellens’ side in decent form and producing a string of encouraging performances, many feel now is as good a time as any for that record to change.

Despite the apparent hoodoo that Swindon suffer when facing Cheltenham, Wellens remained unconcerned with history and is focused on simply claiming another three points in League Two.

The Swindon manager said: “We can’t control history. What we can control is our performance, our organisation and our work rate, so that is what I’ll be focusing on.

“Our identity and what we want to do, our focus from set plays and when the ball turns over, can we counter-attack? That’s all we can concentrate on.

“Let’s just control what we can control. Irrespective of our record there, we want to win so we can stay in and around the top clubs in the league.

“Come half five on Saturday, we want to come away with a positive result so we can look at the league table and think ‘yes, we’re going in the right direction.’”

Cheltenham have made a similar start to Swindon this term and sit just a couple of places above them in the League Two table on seven points.

Unbeaten in 12 games at home, Michael Duff’s men are formidable opposition on their own patch and Wellens knows space will be at a premium on a tight playing area.

But the Swindon chief believes records are there to be broken and insists his players can be the ones to end their opponents unbeaten run if they play to their maximum capabilities.

Wellens said: “It’s a good test for us against this Cheltenham team, they’re a good team at home, so if we’re not at our game, they have the ability to turn teams over.

“They beat Carlisle quite comfortably, they beat Scunthorpe by three goals, so they’re a very good team at home.

“We’ve got to make sure we start on the front foot and if we switch off, we’ll be in for a tough time.

“I’m fully expecting the players to continue what we’ve been doing, and we’ll go there full of confidence because we’ve been playing well, and we’ll hopefully come back with three points.”

Meanwhile, Richie Wellens has been found guilty of improper conduct by the FA and has been handed a two-game touchline ban and a £1,000 fine.

Wellens’ charge relates to an alleged incident in the tunnel area during the half-time interval of Town’s 3-0 Carabao Cup defeat to Colchester United on August 13.

Wellens will be in the stands for this afternoon’s game and the home match against Morecambe.