WILDCATS head coach Ryan Aldridge was happy to leave the Isle of Wight with an ugly 3-0 victory against Wightlink Raiders to earn two much-needed Challenge Cup points.

The lower league side cause the visitors plenty of problems on a small rink but three goals in the second period killed off the game as a contest.

Head coach Ryan Aldridge said before the match that his side might struggle with the size of the rink at Ryde, describing it as a ‘pond’.

That proved the case as Swindon took a while to get into the first period which ended goalless.

Swindon welcomed back Jonas Hoog to the starting line-up, with Henrik Sandvik and Tomasz Malasinski both missing the trip to the south coast with only two imports able to play in the cup, and the Swede looked rusty in the opening parts of the game.

“It was always going to be an ugly game, you could have the two most skilled teams in the world in this little building but it would still be quite ugly,” said Aldridge.

“We needed a win, we got the win and we need to get out of here now and refocus on tomorrow.

“The guys kept hitting the glass tonight and were saying the net was just too close but it is what it is.

“We always knew it would take some time to score, but I don’t think we had enough shots in the first period.

“We just needed to keep it simple and get more pucks to the net and we knew we were going to win.

“Callum (Buglass) took a good shot, with Harding getting a good tip, which got the ball rolling and even Whitfield’s, with the third one was just a quick shot.

“Jonas doesn’t change, his fitness is a little bit down so that is why he will be playing both games this weekend, but he gives you a chance.

“It was tough in this little building for him and Aaron (Nell) to get going, but last night in practice you could see they hadn’t missed each other.

“I am looking forward to having him back in our own building.”

The best chance of the first period fell to the hosts when Stephen Balmer found himself in front of goal with just Lyle to beat but that proved to be an impossible task despite two attempts as the veteran stopper kept the scores level.

Swindon were restricted to long shots and first-time efforts in the first period with Aldridge encouraging his sides to take plenty of shots from the sidelines.

Swindon got their break-through in the 25th minute when Callum Buglass took aim wide on the left and his deflected shot was enough to beat Matthew Colclough in goal.

Swindon doubled their lead through skipper Jan Kostal in the 31st minute. Ollie Betteridge saw a shot from behind goal pushed away from the net by Colclough but it landed at the feet of the captain on the blue line to fire home.

Swindon got a third a minute before the second period break when the puck fell to Stevie Whitfield on the blue line on the right hand side and his first time shot found the net.

The home-side did not give up though and put Stevie Lyle’s goal under a lot of pressure in the third period but Swindon did enough to prevent them from scoring and claim the two-points.