AARON Nell completed a double success at the Link Centre as he guided his side to a 4-3 win over Manchester Phoenix, as well as notching his 250th regular season goal.

A brace from the Wildcats player/coach set Swindon on their way after first period strikes from Tomasz Malasinski and Jan Kostal.

A short-benched Manchester side struggled all evening and a deflected strike from Stanislav Gron looked to be their only consolation before the Slovakian and Ben Wood made for a nervy final minute.

Swindon were well on top early on and opened the scoring in the sixth minute when Jonas Hoog had the puck behind Stephen Fone’s goal and he found Malasinski in space to fire home.

Carlo Finucci then caught Thomas day dreaming in the 14th minute to gain the puck in the final third before picking out Kostal who made no mistake from the centre of the ice.

Manchester came out much stronger in the second period and some fine goal tending from Stevie Lyle maintained the hots’ advantage.

However, after Stevie Whitfield found himself in the bin for slashing with a desperate last-ditch lunge, the visitors were able to half the arrears.

Danger-man Gron was allowed to skate his way into the centre of the ice in the 24th minute before his attempted pass came off the skate of Neil Liddiard and past a hapless Lyle.

The goal sparked Swindon back into life and they were able to restore their advantage on the half-hour mark.

After Hoog had been denied one-on-one with Fone, Malasinski was able to pick up another loose puck and instead of shooting himself he found Nell in space to the right of the goal and the player/coach netted his landmark goal.

Nell was able to make his move towards his next landmark just three minutes later when Malasinski moved down the left and the Brit out-worked his defender to latch onto the Pole’s pass and drive home, taking the goal off its stanchions in the process.

Harvey Stead and Michal Satek both found themselves in the sin-bin for the end of the second period after downing gloves behind Lyle’s goal.

Manchester looked dead on their feet in the final period and only a fine tackle from Russell denied Adam Harding from scoring a fifth with six minutes left.

However, it was the visitors who pulled a goal back when Gron fired home to make it a tense final four minutes.

With both Sam Bullas and Aaron Nell finding their way into the bin in the dying stages, Manchester took advantage and, with Fone pulled, Wood scored to with a minute left.

However, it was too little too late as Swindon defended their goal with bodies and saw the game out to claim the win.