AARON Nell admitted his Swindon Wildcats side were nearly made to pay for “five bad minutes” against Sheffield Steeldogs before they finally snatched a thrilling 4-3 victory in overtime this evening.

Sheffield struck three times in five minutes during the second period at the Link Centre to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 4-3 lead.

However, the Cats rallied and after getting themselves level again, player/coach Nell made it three wins on the bounce for his side in the English Premier League when he netted the winner in overtime.

Nell had earlier opened the scoring for the Cats before Tomasz Malasinski doubled the lead, with Jonas Hoog getting the equaliser after the Steeldogs’ comeback.

“We had a really good start to the game, then they had a powerplay in the first period and it kind of knocked the wind out of our sails a bit and then we had five bad minutes in the second period,” said Nell.

“In the third period we were all over them. It might have been 15 or 20 shots to three or four in the third period.

“We worked extremely hard but their goalie made some outstanding saves where we thought: ‘Oh, this is a goal’.

“In the end, I think we deserved the win but fair play to them, they work extremely hard.

“Overtime is a complete and utter coin flip. It’s great for the fans and it’s great entertainment but it can go any way. We got lucky in the end.”

Nell also praised the performance of D-man Lee Richardson, who was named man of the match on the occasion of his 400th EPL appearance for the Cats.

“Lee is great. He is a massive part of our club. Everyone is really happy for him,” added Nell.

“I think he was almost a bit embarrassed by the thing at the start. He’s not bothered about that, he just wants the team to win.

“He is a massive credit to our club. This is a ninth year, he’s going to have a great testimonial next year and I hope everyone gets behind him and hopefully he can keep on playing for many a year.”

The Cats travel to bottom side Bracknell Bees tomorrow looking to make it four wins in a row, having already beaten the same opposition 7-4 last weekend.

“Tomorrow is massive. We got a good win last week and tomorrow is huge,” said Nell.

“We need to put in a professional performance and we need to go hard for 60 minutes. If we do that we will win and then it’s four in a row and we are doing OK.”