RICHIE Wellens admits another weekend without a League Two fixture is far from ideal as Swindon Town seek to keep up their recent momentum, although he hopes it can be a blessing in disguise.

Town’s scheduled trip to Newport County this afternoon has been postponed due to the Exiles’ involvement in the FA Cup, where they host Premier League champions Manchester City in the fifth round tonight.

No revised date for the match has yet been announced – and it is unlikely to be revealed until a definitive outcome of County’s cup clash.

Swindon only had a Saturday off two weeks ago when their home meeting with Forest Green Rovers was called off due to heavy snowfall.

Town claimed back-to-back league victories away at Milton Keynes Dons and in the re-arranged Forest Green game last week, so Wellens was eager to try to continue that good form in south Wales.

However, with the Exiles’ Rodney Parade pitch one of the worst affected by the recent inclement weather, the Town boss hopes a delay to the game can work to his side’s advantage.

“It was important we had a positive result against Forest Green,” said Wellens.

“With no game at the weekend, you don’t want to be waiting 10 or 11 days for the next game if you have had a poor result or poor performance.

“The response we have had since Crawley (a 1-0 home loss on January 26) has been really good, so we have just got to continue doing that.

“We would love to have another game, but my only thing is that we have all seen Newport’s pitch – we wouldn’t be able to go and play our football on there.

“At the minute the pitch is poor. We will see how Man City get on, but even with their world-class players, I can’t see them handling the surface very well.

“We will try to delay it as long as possible. Hopefully by then, we will have had some sun mixed with a bit of rain and some grass might grow.”

With the fixtureless weekend known well in advance, Wellens has taken the decision to give his players a rare Saturday off.

The Town boss feels holding an additional training session instead would have little overall bearing on preparations for their return to action for the home game against Grimsby Town in a week’s time.

“The players are fit, we can still improve them, but we don’t want to flog them,” said Wellens.

“They will have the weekend off and then that will allow us to do our normal week leading up to the Grimsby game.

“We will do our tactical work on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, so we would just be ticking a box to get them in for the sake of it – and we don’t want to do that.

“You dangle the carrot where players know that if they perform well and work to their maximum and get good results, they can enjoy a weekend with the family.”