D-MAN Stevie Whitfield says Swindon Wildcats cannot afford to gloss over defeats if they are to have any aspirations of success this term.

Aaron Nell’s side are looking to finish the English Premier League regular season as strongly as possible and claimed a third win in succession, and seventh in their last 10 fixtures, on Saturday night with an emphatic 7-0 success at home to Bracknell Bees.

However, the Cats’ form then came slightly off the rails on Sunday night when they went down 4-1 on the road at Guildford Flames.

Whitfield, who has spent his whole career at his hometown club, thinks it would be foolish for Swindon simply put that loss down to an off-night and brush it under the carpet.

The 26-year-old instead wants the Cats to seek immediate improvements in the wake of that loss, in the hope that their errors will not be repeated once the end-of-season play-offs begin on March 22.

“How we look at Sunday night depends on what sort of team we want to be,” said Whitfield, who made his senior Wildcats debut back in the 2008-09 campaign.

“If we want to go into the play-offs and win something, I don’t think saying that we will just take a loss with a pinch of salt will be any good for us.

“If we want to be successful, we have to learn to keep winning because you are going to have to win maybe five of the six games to get through the play-offs just to get to finals weekend at Coventry.

“We have got to learn from Sunday night’s defeat and we have to take that disappointment, and start winning a good number of games in a row again.”

The Cats never truly hit their straps against Guildford as a single goal in each of the opening two periods gave the hosts control.

Although Swindon clawed back a lifeline courtesy of Tomasz Malasinski’s strike, defender Whitfield conceded that his side did not play well enough to get back into the contest.

The result means that the Flames have climbed above Swindon in the EPL table, with Nell’s side now down in sixth place, with just three fixtures remaining before the play-offs get under way.

“The two first goals they scored were not necessarily against the run of play but they weren’t through built momentum – they were just one-off plays that ended in goals,” said Whitfield.

“In the third period, we thought if we could get one goal, we could go from there.

“We got that goal but after that, we were poor.

“They were building and building pressure, and Stevie Lyle had to make some unbelievable saves in goal, and from there, we struggled.”