STEVE Whitfield admits Swindon Wildcats have to repay their fans’ faith when they resume battle with Manchester Phoenix tonight.

Cats have suffered two tough losses on the road at Phoenix in the past week, the latter of which saw them dumped out of the Challenge Cup in embarrassing fashion on Thursday night after an heavy 10-5 semi-final second leg defeat.

Whitfield says that has made Swindon hungry for revenge when the teams face off again in this evening’s English Premier League showdown at the Link Centre.

And the D-man added that the Cats players know they must give something back to their loyal supporters after two below-par performances.

“We’ve certainly got plenty of motivation,” said Whitfield.

“We have to come into that game flying and get back on track.

“We can still do something this year, we’re looking to win games and do well in the play-offs.

“The fans that travelled to Manchester on Thursday and Sunday, we certainly owe them a performance on Saturday.

“And we need something to build on as that just wasn’t good enough.”

Although Thursday’s cup mauling still looms large overhead, Whitfield says hard graft in the gym will ensure there is no hangover from that lacklustre display.

He said: “We want to make sure this is an anomaly rather than a pattern.

“We haven’t been playing particularly well recently, although obviously we haven’t been losing like that.

“We have to make sure we’re competing again and get back to the way we can play.

“It’s just hard work, that’s all you can do. Maybe you simplify your game a bit and just work hard.

“You keep plugging away and eventually it will turn around.”

Whitfield offered no excuses for the Cats’ disappointing showing at the Altrincham Ice Dome and conceded that they were second best in all departments.

However, the 24-year-old believes a lack of big game exposure in the past could have had a bearing on the outcome.

“We’re not an inexperienced team but we’re trying to become a team that regularly makes semi-finals and finals,” added Whitfield.

“On Thursday we came up against a team that already does that and I think they taught us a bit of a lesson.

“The only positives we can take from it is that we need to learn from it and next time we find ourselves in that situation, make sure that doesn’t happen.

“We didn’t compete at all in the areas that are important. We scored five goals, which is good, but we have got the best goalkeeper in the league and we hung him out to dry. The defence wasn’t good enough.”