Aldridge braced for busy period (From Swindon Advertiser)

SWINDON WILDCATS: Aldridge braced for busy period

6:00am Thursday 21st February 2013 in Ice Hockey By Ned Payne

HEAD coach Ryan Aldridge admits the pressure is on Swindon over the next few days as the cold weather of January makes its impact felt.

Wildcats take on Milton Keynes at the Link Centre tonight in a clash that was postponed from January 20 due to snow.

Swindon had made the trip to the Thunderdome through the white stuff the previous evening and won 5-4, but more snow overnight meant the Lightning did not make the return trip.

The game was rescheduled for this evening, giving Aldridge’s men a demanding programme of three matches in four days, with Telford and Manchester to come this weekend.

And Aldridge concedes that is not an ideal state of affairs as Swindon are still struggling to cope with injuries to a string of players.

“Three games in four nights is going to be tough for us being so short-benched, but it’s one of those things,” said Aldridge.

“We’ve just got to try and stay injury-free, get through it and do the best we can.

“The game has come back at a tough time and puts pressure on us, it shouldn’t have really, it should have gone in our favour.

“Had it been in our favour it would have been at a better time, but unfortunately it’s come back to haunt us.

“Everything has seemed to affect us this year, but like always we’ll bounce back.”

Aldridge’s focus is firmly on getting a 60-minute performance out of his players against a team who have third place in the EPL within reach.

“Milton Keynes are doing really well,” said Aldridge.

“They’ve just brought a new guy in who we haven’t seen yet (Janne Jokila) and they are always a team that works hard and we have to match their work rate.”

Meanwhile, youngster Ollie Betteridge has outlined the importance of short shifts to Swindon’s gameplan with a glut of fixtures coming up.

“We’ve got three games in seven days so we need to make sure we keep fresh legs,” said the forward.

“We’re short-benched as it is, so we will play short shifts, battle hard and hopefully pull out six points in the three games this weekend.

“You can’t perform your best when you’re tired, short shifts will make a difference.”

Meanwhile, Betteridge and Henri Sandvik have finally received their own shirts after weeks of waiting.

Betteridge had previously been wearing the number 11 shirt of the departed Chris Jones and Sandvik wore number 24.