SWINDON Wildcats goaltender Stevie Lyle is expecting a busy evening when his side start the new season with a tough trip to their play-off conquerors Manchester Phoenix this weekend.

Cats suffered a controversial 4-3 overtime defeat to Manchester, who topped the Premier League table, in last term’s play-off semi-finals, with the then-reigning champions going on to lose 5-3 to the Basingstoke Bison in the final.

Lyle’s side make the trip to the Altrincham Ice Dome on Sunday (face-off 5.30pm) for their opening league fixture but that clash comes just under 24 hours after their first competitive action at the Link Centre.

Tomorrow evening (6pm), Ryan Aldridge’s side take on National League outfit Chelmsford Chieftains in the opening round of the Challenge Cup.

“I’m definitely going to be a lot busier on Sunday up in Manchester,” said Lyle. “They’re a very good side and they like to take a lot of shots. It’s going to be tough but that’s the way you like it to be.

“I think the fact that we’re starting off with a game against Chelmsford is a good thing because it helps us ease our way in to things.

“But even though they’re a side from another league, they’re going to want to turn up and try to prove a point against us, so it’s not going to be easy.

After signing on the majority of last season’s squad, Cats boss Aldridge has added just three new faces to his roster ahead of this weekend’s opening face-off.

Lyle is keen to see a few more new faces arrive at the Link Centre but knows that his head coach has the recruitment situation well in hand.

“I would like to see one or two new players come in to add to what we’ve got if we can make that happen,” said the Swindon goalie.

“It would be nice if we could get that done in the next few weeks but that’s down to Ryan. I know that he’s in charge of that and he doesn’t really say much about new players that often anyway, which is fine.”