‘HOMETOWN boy’ Shane Moore thinks that reaching the final of the English Premier League Challenge Cup would be a fitting way to mark the Swindon Wildcats’ healthy progression over recent years.

The Link Centre men are currently enjoying an EPL campaign to savour and the long-serving Moore would love to see his team get the better of the Manchester Phoenix tonight in their semi-final second leg (face-off 7.30pm) and put themselves in touching distance of some tangible reward for an impressive season.

“It’s huge for the club, it’s huge for Swindon really. A chance for us to get some silverware is going to be massive and I just hope that all the boys are up for it,” said D-man Moore.

“We’re all ready to go and I think we’ve got a massive point to prove, that we are a team to compete with the best, and that’s the start of it (tonight).

“I think everyone knows that we can be dangerous on our day now and if you look around the league, everyone’s beating everyone and this league is such a tight league now – if you turn up and don’t play, you’re going to get beat.

“I think people need to stand up and be counted. I think the league, as a whole, is going to start looking at us a bit more.

“We’ve improved steadily over the last couple of years and I think it’s about time we took some silverware back to Swindon.

“I think it’s a huge credit Steve Nell as the owner that he’s put a solid business plan in place and built this club up gradually over the years, both professionally on the ice and off the ice.

“The product that we offer now as a club is really phenomenal and I’m proud to be a part of that, especially being a hometown boy.”

In a dress rehearsal of tonight’s cup clash, the Wildcats were beaten 5-2 at the Altrincham Ice Dome on Sunday but Moore has warned the Phoenix to believe that they hold the advantage at their peril.

The Swindon man added: “I don’t think it’s going to be a massive bearing.

“Obviously their confidence is going to go up and they’re going to expect to beat us now but at the end of the day, that might work in our favour.

“They might take us lightly and think that it’s going to be a given and we’re going to have to come in and start the way we did (on Sunday) and finish the way we started.

“We’ll have a different dynamic on Thursday as well. I think we played a lot more defensively and maybe that didn’t really pay off for us whereas on Thursday, putting Tomasz Malasinski back in the line-up, it’s going to be a different kind of game.

“I think they’re going to have to be prepared. We’re going to come hard and go at it.

“At the end of the day, Sunday was probably a bit of a confidence boost for them but in the cup game right now it’s 3-3 and everything’s to play for.”