ADAM Harding was on hand to douse Manchester Phoenix with his late goal to delight head coach Ryan Aldridge.

His goal three minutes from time was pivotal in Swindon Wildcats to extending their winning streak to four games with a 4-2 win over Manchester Phoenix.

Aldridge was full of praise for his team as they came from behind twice to secure the win, their second of the season against last season’s champions.

With the score at 2-2 and the clock running down in the third period it was 21-year-old Harding, whose hard work so often goes unnoticed, who stepped up to the plate.

He received the puck on the blue line and fired low and hard past the Manchester goalie Declan Ryan, before Malasinski added a gleam to the score-line.

“I thought the boys were phenomenal tonight, especially in the last two periods, we stuck to the gameplan and played very smart defensively and took our chances when they came following our defensive work,” said Aldridge.

“The second and third period were great, we outshot them heavily in the second period and then in the third they were leading the game but had to call a time out because they knew they were under pressure.

“We kept at it and kept to the same style and it worked for us in the end.”

The Cats were missing Callum Buglass, Floyd Taylor and Ollie Betteridge from their starting line-up as they are currently on international duty with GB U20s.

The hosts got off to another poor start as player-coach Tony Hand scored but Aaron Nell restored parity just two minutes later.

Cats again fell behind during a power-play when Frantiesk Bakrlik fired home but after he was ejected from the game for a hard hit on captain Jan Kostal the home side started to dominate and Jonas Hoog pulled them back again after a fine assist from Harding.

With the three young players out of the side it was 19-year-old Adam Finlinson who was given a chance in the team and he looked good in only his second game for the Cats.

 “Adam Finlinson stepped up for us tonight, he’s a young lad and that’s the most ice time he’s had for us so far and I thought he played great on the shifts that he had,” added Aldridge.

“Adam Harding’s goal was a great shot, a lot of guys his age would probably have shot to the top corner but he put it right where he should put it.

“He was outstanding and came close to scoring on the shift before that as well.”

Swindon now head to Peterborough tomorrow night looking to avenge their last outing to Cambridgeshire when they lost 7-2.