RYAN Aldridge may be preparing for his final shot at leading the Swindon Wildcats to play-off glory but the Link Centre chief isn’t about to change his pre-match superstitions any time soon.

The Wildcats stalwart, who is set to step away from his role as head coach at the end of the season, will be aiming to go out with a bang by guiding his hometown club to the English Premier League play-off crown, starting with a two-legged quarter-final against the Peterborough Phantoms this weekend.

And despite the occasion, Aldridge will continue his pre face-off tradition of remaining in the dressing room right up until the match is ready to begin in earnest, fighting off any last-minute jitters.

“It’s funny. For me, I probably get more nervous now as a coach than I did as a player,” said the Swindon chief.

“But basically, until the boys walk out of the locker room before the game starts, I normally stay in the dressing room and that’s when I get like ‘here we go’.

“I don’t normally get nervous throughout the week or anything like that. It’s usually before the game starts.

“It’s just the way that it is.

“I don’t stand outside for the national anthem.

“I’d rather just get on the bench when it’s game time.”

Results against the Phantoms have been a mixed bag this season, with both teams beating each other twice away from home, and Aldridge thinks that carving out a lead in Saturday’s opening leg at the Link Centre would be ideal for the Wildcats.

The Swindon boss said: “I think the last two or three weeks were only going to affect where we finished in the league, so it’s been a bit tough keeping guys motivated.

“It’s quite easy to change the motivation and focus once the play-offs come around because they’re the games that mean everything and they’re the ones you want to play in.

“For us, it’s just about being focused and playing with intensity, which we know we have to play with against Peterborough.

“I think, for us, we know that against that team, we can only play one way and everybody has to buy into that way.

“We played the same way the other night (last weekend’s 6-2 regular season win over Peterborough) and were successful, so now we all know what we’re doing and we’ve got to stick to it.

“We’ve kind of got to take care of business at home on Saturday night.

“It’s a very difficult place to go (Peterborough), so we’ve got to have a good performance at home and hopefully go there on Sunday with some sort of lead.

“Obviously, it’s not a write off if we don’t – we’ve just got to work harder in their building.

“It’s quite easy to score four goals early on and lose the game.

“We’ve got to get a lead but we’ve got to play smart defensively over six periods of hockey."

D-man Alex Symonds and import forward Tomas Kana return from injury to boost Aldridge’s squad this weekend.