SWINDON Wildcats chief Stevie Lyle reckons that he got the player-coach balance right as he led his team to a sublime victory at last season’s English Premier League champions Telford Tigers tonight.

The Swindon head coach was disappointed with his performance in goal – with the Link Centre chief hooking himself during the second period – as the Wildcats were beaten 6-3 by Peterborough Phantoms on Saturday but after clearing his head and concentrating more on his on-ice duties, Lyle’s men ran out 4-2 winners at Telford today.

Miroslav Zalesak’s goal in the final minute of the match was the moment that swung the pendulum in Swindon’s favour and Lyle admits that he was preparing for overtime as the clock ran down.

“Going back to last night, it didn’t work out very well, purely on the basis that I was concentrating more on coaching than goaltending,” said Lyle.

“I had a word with the boys and what we decided tonight; I do the speech going in to the game and then after that, I kind of pass things over to Kenton Smith and I think it’s worked out quite well.

“To be honest, I think I’ve played about 23 years of professional hockey now so it’s more about trying to keep myself fit and just making sure the team are ready.

“I’m still confident in my game that I can still play a decent part in the team and last night was just a lesson learned – I was thinking more about players than watching the puck.

“Okay, I’m the coach but I’ve still got a job to do between the pipes and hopefully, after tonight, I’m back to it.

“As a team, we knew they (Telford) were going to come at us and they were going to be pretty solid so it was literally (about) absorbing some of the pressure.

“We stuck to our gameplan and luckily enough, even though it was the last minute of the game until we scored the winning goal, it worked well.

“In my head, I thought we were going in to overtime to be honest – I was already starting to think about guys to stick out there because this year, it’s three-on-three as soon as you go into overtime.

“The boys are pumped. We didn’t play bad last night but unfortunately, I just had an off-night. That happens in hockey but hopefully not for a long time.

Lyle added: “I think we had the toughest start out of everyone. You’re playing – on the Saturday – the play-off champs and then you’re going to the league champs.

“But we need that test. That’s the way the season’s going to be.”