SWINDON Wildcats head coach Ryan Aldridge was given the perfect tonic from his players this evening as they defeated Sheffield Steeldogs.

The Link Centre boss was forced to miss training last night due to illness and in that practice session he was set to tinker with his side’s power plays.

But after being unable to attend, Aldridge resisted the change and was repaid by his players as they beat south Yorkshire men 5-4 at the Link Centre.

With 5.06 on the clock Jeff Legue picked out Tom Squires and he drilled the puck beyond Stevie Lyle.

But Cats pushed hard for a leveller and it came from their former Sheffield man Aaron Nell after he slotted the puck past Dalibor Sedlar following a lovely pass from captain Jan Kostal.

It did not take Cats long to take the lead in the second period as Henri Sandvik netted on 21.14 after being played in by Ollie Betteridge.

Steeldogs then saw Greg Wood, Legue and Lloyd Gibson binned for interference and Jonas Hoog took full advantage on 30.44 to make it 3-1 after being put in by Aaron Nell.

Lee Richardson then made it 4-1 on 31.39 with a deft shot from behind the blue line after Nell plays the puck back to him, however, Lubomir Korhon pulled a goal back for the visitors on 32.14.

Adam Harding makes it 5-2 on 43.14 with a fine sole effort but the visitors are quickly on target with their third of the night when Korhon plays in Lee Haywood to net.

In a bid to try and save the game Steeldogs pulled netminder Sedlar for the final two minutes and despite Korhon late strike they could not force overtime.

“We had a few power play goals tonight, but it is good to puck the in the net again especially after two weekend ago when we weren’t getting those shots or chances to score ten in two nights is good,” Aldridge said.

“I wasn’t at practice last night because I was ill and we were going to change our power plays, we ended up going with the same ones, so we will see if we change it a little bit.”

Having beaten Sheffield last weekend 5-1, the Swindon chief asked his players to come out fast against their visitors and he was pleased with the response that he got.

“They (Sheffield) needed revenge from last week and I thought that the boys played well tonight.

“I think we came out faster than we normally do, but Sheffield came out with a point to prove, one of their players got one or two hits in the first shift to try and set the tone and I think we matched that to a certain degree.”

Aldridge now takes his side to Invicta Dynamos tomorrow in the Challenge Cup and he is determined that he team don’t take the game for granted after thrashing the Gillingham-based side 9-1 at the Link Centre earlier in the campaign.

“They will be a different team in their building, they will be very hard, gritty, dirty-nosed hockey team,” he added.

“We have got to there and not be lazy and not treat it like it is not going to be an easy game.”