SWINDON Wildcats will head into this weekend with one eye on their Challenge Cup semi-final against Manchester Phoenix admits head coach Ryan Aldridge.

Swindon host Bracknell Bees on Saturday before a dress-rehearsal of their cup decider on Sunday in Manchester.

Swindon have already faced Bracknell six times this season in all competitions but, despite their M4 rivals being bottom of the table, the Cats have only won three of those encounters.

“They are the kind of team that make you work for your points and we seem to struggle against them,” said Aldridge, who will still have Ollie Betteridge missing with a knee injury.

“I think they try and get under our skin and put us off our game plan. We play well with the skill teams and not so well with the lesser skill teams.

“They just come and work hard. They are not overly skilled but they take the body and try and get under your skin. I think we sometimes let that happen.

“We have to be ready from the drop of the puck, they come out and try and play a rough game.”

With two trips to Manchester in the space of four days Aldridge has said that he is prepared to use the league game on Sunday to experiment with his tactics.

“We are up there again on Thursday night so it is a tester on Sunday night but again they always play the same sort of style so we know what we’re dealing with,” added Aldridge.

“It’s a big game in the cup and we are really focusing on the cup now and Sunday night is testing the water really.

“We might play a bit different to how we have done in the past on Sunday night, just to see how that works out for us, it won’t be massively different, just be a bit more aggressive.”

Meanwhile, Aldridge is waiting to hear from the league if there will be any ramifications from Sunday night’s match with Telford Tigers.

The Link Centre boss has submitted his views on the game after the match was brought to a premature end.

“I have sent my views to the league on the game and I got a reply last night to say they are looking into the game so I will see what happens from that,” said Aldridge.

“I don’t know if they will give the video footage in to be honest. They have taken it down offline already so they obviously have something to hide so we’ll see what happens.

“He (Silverthorn) had a match penalty anyway so he was definitely going to miss that game and I think he might be on points as well so he might get an extra game for that.

“The rest will be down to the league on how they feel he handled himself, sitting on the bench and then coming out and doing what he did. It wasn’t a heat of the moment thing, it was something he sat there and thought about it.”