SWINDON Wildcats chief Aaron Nell is hoping that he can stoke his troops’ appetite to help kick them back into an upward curve in the English Premier League.

The Wildcats have struggled to recreate their best form since returning from a two-week Christmas break on Boxing Day, with Nell’s men, who were humbled 5-0 at the Manchester Phoenix last Sunday, winning three of their last six outings.

Cats player-coach Nell is prescribing good, old-fashioned ‘hard work’ as the remedy to his team’s malaise and is sure that they will soon get back on song, particularly with a chance for instant revenge on the horizon with Manchester visiting the Link Centre next Saturday.

“It’s a massive, massive game and, you know what, it’s about getting two points but it’s also about performance,” said Nell.

“We need to start playing well, start feeling good on the ice.

“It takes all of us – from me, to Carlo (Finucci), to Floyd Taylor. It’s all of us. We’ve got to pull together.

“We’ve got 20 more games left. We’ve had a great year so far – a really, really good year – and we’re going to be flying but we’ve just got to put the work in and that’s what we’ll do.

“(Against) Sheffield (a 3-0 win on January 2); we were good but they weren’t really up for it. Guildford (a 4-3 overtime loss a day later); we had half a good game, but out of the other four games after Christmas, (last Sunday) was our best game.

“I know we lost five-nothing and we didn’t put away our chances but they were a hungry team and we need to get back to being that hard-working, hungry team – like we were when we beat Telford at home a month back, when we beat Peterborough away (in December).”

“We need to be that hungry team that sticks together and we’ll get back to that.”

The Wildcats, who recorded nine victories from 12 matches before their Christmas lay-off, are currently fifth in the EPL table.

Nell added: “You work hard, you get luck. I believe in karma and I think that six weeks ago, we were getting the rub of the green and we deserved it through hard work.”

“Sometimes, you need a reality check. Sometimes, we might get ahead of our station and we’re back feeling rubbish again but we’ll bounce back.

“We’re a good bunch and we’ve had a tough three weeks but it’s going to build some character and we’ll bounce back.”