PLAYER-coach Aaron Nell says he wants his Swindon Wildcats to put in a strong home performance for injured teammate Toms Rutkis this evening.

The teenager suffered a jaw injury in the final minute of the opening period in the Wildcats’ 4-1 NIHL Cup win at Telford Tigers last week.

With the forward set to be out for some time, Nell wants the rest of his players to go out and claim a win over Invicta Dynamos in the name of the youngster at the Link Centre.

“The trip home last weekend we were obviously gutted about Toms and everything, but it was a bit nicer to come home after having a good win,” he said.

“Hopefully the penny has dropped and we can play hard for the rest of the year and that we can keep on pushing.

“We have to rally around Toms, he would love to be out there but he’s not going to be, so we have to play hard for him.

“You can see that the team is really coming together, we had a great weekend and now we have to build on that.

“We can’t look in the past, we have to look forward and have another great week.”

Given the league restructure, Nell and the Wildcats have made their aims for the season crystal clear and after a three-point weekend in the opening two league clashes, the Wildcats chief is looking to go one better this time around.

The Wildcats have won both of their games at the Link Centre this season beating Milton Keynes Thunder and Basingstoke Bison, however, they were left stunned by an over-time loss against tonight’s visitors a fortnight ago in Gillingham.

“We are back in the league now, we had a great weekend but we have got to keep on pushing,” added Nell. “We found a little groove and we’ve got to keep up that good feeling.

“Invicta played great against us two weeks ago so we need to get them back and put in a big performance.

“Winning is a habit, it’s about doing the right things and doing things the right way and we did that last weekend.

“We need to continue that now because that is our level and we need to push forward and improve each week.”