LEE Richardson is hoping for the perfect weekend as Swindon Wildcats look to kick-start their English Premier League campaign.

The Link Centre stalwart and his teammates welcome Manchester Phoenix this evening before making the long trip north on Sunday to face Hull Pirates night, who defeated Manchester 11-4 in their opening fixture of the campaign before beating Basingstoke Bison the following night.

And after last weekend’s double defeat - a 4-3 reverse to Guildford Flames followed by a 6-1 drubbing at Peterborough Phantoms - 33-year-old Richardson is looking beyond getting the Cats' first two points on the board.

“Against Manchester on Saturday, you don’t want to jinx it but it is a nice fixture to have,” Richardson said.

“They are a team we want to beat. If we play our best, we can beat them – that is no disrespect to them. Anyone in this league will think the same way.

“It is nice that we have a home game to go and get those first two points.

“Then on Sunday, away to Hull, they will be a team around us in the league and we want to be ahead of them and beat them.

“So this is a big weekend already, even though it is only two weeks into the season.”

While Richardson was not happy with the result last Saturday, he was buoyed by the performance even though it was followed a below-par display.

“We played alright on Saturday, it could have gone the other way, but on Sunday, we didn’t play well enough to win and that is the disappointing thing,” he said.

“If you play like we did on Saturday and lose, sometimes you have to accept it, but on Sunday, we didn’t play well enough and that is not acceptable.”

The utility man, who began his Link Centre career at the turn of this century, believes that the future is looking bright having been impressed by the club’s youngsters last weekend.

“Kyle Smith - he gives everything and when Aaron (Nell, player-coach) is looking at him, he wants to play,” said Richardson.

“Ollie (Stone) has come in and done well, we knew about Toms (Rutkis) and Adam (Finlinson), they played a fair bit last year.

“The imports played well too, but they will play better when things settle down.

“I think we will be fine once we settle and get into a rhythm - we will be more in tune this weekend.”