SWINDON Wildcats’ Floyd Taylor is expecting tomorrow’s crunch clash with Manchester Phoenix to be a completely different story to last weekend’s disappointing trip to the North West.

The Wildcats suffered a 5-2 league defeat at Manchester on Sunday evening and the stakes are ramped up later this week when Taylor and his team-mates bid for a place in the Challenge Cup final.

The tie is finely-poised at 3-3 ahead of the semi-final second leg and the 19-year-old forward thinks that last weekend’s league loss at the hands of this week’s cup opponents will have little relevance to who makes it through to the final.

“Thursday is the big game, really,” said Taylor.

“(Manchester) are always a good team to play against. Their defence is always good. Offence is their weak link but they’re still a good side to play against - they like to jump into the play.

“We’ve just got to work with it really and take it into Thursday, and hopefully we’ll get a good result and play in the finals, and hopefully win that as well.

“It’s the first time I’ve even played in a cup semi-final, so it’s good to get that and it’s a good buzz when you’re playing because everyone’s up for it because they want to make the final.

“I think a lot of the players will come out a lot more pumped up for the game, so it’ll be a different story I hope.”

He added: “I can’t even remember the last time Swindon won the cup or anything. Hopefully, if we win a cup, it’ll be good for everyone because the season’s going well and we’re doing well.

“Hopefully it’ll be a big step we can all build on and Swindon can go forward from it.

“I think everyone will be up for it. It’s such a big game and everyone wants to make the final. Everyone will be going 100 per cent and hopefully it’s a different story.”

Tomasz Malasinski is expected to come back into Ryan Aldridge’s Wildcats side for Thursday’s cup clash after he was rested on Sunday but Ollie Betteridge remains sidelined with a broken kneecap.