D-MAN Stevie Whitfield hopes the Swindon Wildcats have arrested their indifferent start to the season by claiming their first four-point weekend of 2016-17.

Last Saturday, Cats bested the Telford Tigers on penalty shots at the Link Centre before romping to a 7-4 victory at the Guildford Flames on Sunday and that display in particular stoked Whitfield’s belief that his side have overcome an early-season hurdle.

Aaron Nell’s side have now won three and lost three of their opening six matches and Whitfield was particularly impressed with how effective his teammates were on the power play at the Guildford Spectrum, even if it meant that the 25-year-old spent plenty of time on the sidelines.

“I think to go from 1-3 going in to the weekend to now be 3-3 gives us that base to be able to say ‘right, this is almost a turning point and we have to kick on’,” said Whitfield “This weekend is even bigger now because we have to push on to be the team where we want to be – further up the table.

“When the goals are flying in, it’s fun and it’s easy, especially when it’s the power play because I don’t have to play.

“Winning is fun and some of those plays were really something else, so it was enjoyable. Normally, we do struggle in that building and we had a tough night on Saturday as well, so we’re really pleased.

“The power play has been ticking along well and on Sunday, it just blew up. I think we scored three or four power play goals and we wouldn’t normally expect that but to have that power play threat is massive.

“Teams are worried about taking penalties. It creates space and things like that and it plays on their mind, and also, I think we let in a goal or two on the kill but we had a couple of big kills in the third.”

This weekend, Cats take on the bottom two in the English Premier League, hosting 10th-placed Bracknell Bees on Saturday before travelling to the Fylde Coast Ice Arena in Blackpool to take on the Manchester Phoenix on Sunday.

Whitfield added: “It’s a different kind of pressure because now we’ve got these couple of wins we weren’t expected to get – two points would have been good and anything else, a bonus – this weekend, we’ve set the bar and have to get two wins again, and kick on from there.”