SWINDON Wildcats star Aaron Nell has backed goalie Stevie Lyle to recover quickly from an uncharacteristic error against Milton Keynes and play a prominent role in the EPL play-offs.

Lyle spilt a defensive flick with the Cats on a powerplay during the midweek clash at the Link Centre on Wednesday night, allowing Stanislav Lascek to briefly put the visitors in front.

In the end the error was not costly to Swindon, who beat Lightning 3-2 at the fifth time of asking this term, and ahead of the double header against Telford Tigers and Guildford Flames this weekend Nell has rallied round his netminder.

The Great Britain international was efusive in his defence of Lyle and backed him to lead Wildcats into the playoffs.

“It was very, very unlucky. Stevie bails us out way more than we bail him out, since I’ve been back he’s been excellent, he’s massive for us when we play good around him then he’s really, really good, he’s very tough to score against,” Nell told the Advertiser.

“It was a mistake and it was just unlucky, it wasn’t his fault it wasn’t anyone else’s fault, it was just unlucky and that happens and we pulled it back and got a massive win.

“We’ve got a decent chance in the play-offs, especially with Stevie in goal, we just need to be working, work as a team, as hard as we can and pull in the same direction and we should be fine.

“There’s a lot of good teams in this league, it’s not like it used to be and all we can do is give it our best and everyone’s happy.

“We have a lot of belief in our dressing room about our ability and hopefully it will come off.”

Nell believes that Cats recent run of bad form is now behind them and that they are in good stead as the play-offs loom ever larger on the horizon.

“We had five bad games and I know I’ve struggled for those last five games,” he said.

“It’s a very tough league.

“You’re not just going to win every game, you have to be very good every night, we’ve had our little lull that we have every year after Christmas and now we can kick on into the play-offs.

After losing to Bracknell Bees last Saturday, Cats did not have the chance to make amends immediately, with no game last Sunday, and Nell is looking forward to a weekend double header this time around.

“I know myself and a lot of the boys were really looking forward to today to make up for Saturday,” he said. “What’s good now is we take today into next Saturday and keep on going from there.”