PLAYER-COACH Aaron Nell says his defensive quartet will provide plenty of problems for the opposition next year after the Swindon Wildcats re-signed Sam Godfrey.

Godfrey becomes the latest defenceman to commit to the Cats, as Neil Liddiard and Stevie Whitfield have already agreed to extend their stays, while Tyler Plews is a fresh face at the Link Centre.

Last term, the Cats came away with a cup double as they bagged the Autumn Trophy and NIHL Cup in a successful year at the club.

With many of last year’s roster already agreeing to come back to the club, Nell is hoping his team will benefit from a strong defensive unit.

“I’m delighted to have Sam back because he is a good person and a great player for us last year,” said Nell.

“He’s been great since he came to us last season. At the start of the year he came in, he hadn’t played too much, but when he got to us he played a lot of minutes and worked hard.

“We have a good core of some big boys in defence who aren’t easy to play against. He’s right up there with Neil Liddiard, Stevie Whitfield and Tyler Plews.

“You want to make us a tough team to play against and with them four, they go hard and it’s a solid four.

“You’re always tweaking the team and looking. Obviously, it depends if players want to play and all of that stuff, but we had a great group here last year.

“When it is like that you want to keep as many as possible, they’re were w good group, they worked hard and that goes a long way.

“Last season we learned how to win, that is contagious and now we want to do it even more.”

Despite Godfrey only being 24, the Wildcats chief thinks the former Milton Keynes Lightning man has plenty of experience under his belt already.

With that being said, Nell believes there is still plenty of room for improvement in Godfrey’s game.

“Godfrey has been playing a long time, he does have experience. He’s a little bit old school in the way that he plays,” he added.

“He plays the game very hard. We all make mistakes and sometimes he does make mistakes but his work rate, commitment and intensity is why I love having him in our team.

“Last year, if anything, I had to put too much responsibility on him. It’s about managing the players because him and Whitfield probably played too much last year.”