SWINDON Wildcats’ Lee Richardson believes this season has been a learning curve after the team bowed out of the English Premier League play-offs at the weekend.

Their final game of the campaign finished in misery as the Cats lost 7-3 at home to Basingstoke Bison, with Richardson claiming a late consolation goal.

However, the game was nothing more than a formality for both sides, who had already learned their play-off fate, with the Wildcats bid to make Coventry ended the day before they locked horns with Bison.

This term has been a turbulent one for the Link Centre side with season-ending injuries to D-men Callum Buglass, Mark Smith and Matt Selby, plus player-coach Aaron Nell forcing the club to recruit mid-season.

Despite this, Richardson, who is in his testimonial year at the Link Centre, believes there are some highs to be taken from the season.

“It (the result) wasn’t what we wanted and it wasn’t how we wanted to end the season but we have to try and take some positives from it,” said the 34-year-old, “Guys like Ben Nethersell and Ollie Stone have stepped up and played well and so has Floyd Taylor so it is things like you can take that from it.

“It’s one of those things, when you’re playing as a coach, sometimes it’s easier because your emotions are there and you are charged up a little bit.

“It’s definitely something I noticed from the bench when I was injured. It’s difficult to see the game sometimes so I think for Aaron, it was a learning curve.”

While he was delighted to get on the score sheet at the weekend, Richardson admits it was hard to be motivated for the Bison game, given there was nothing at stake.

“It’s hard when you have nothing to play for,” added Richardson “Sometimes, when you have games like that, there is there is no contact, but we knew Basingstoke wouldn’t want to play like that.

“We had to come out hard and hit them at home. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out that way. It got a bit rough at times but when it’s a game like that, you know you’re going to get hit.”

Richardson will now look forward to his testimonial match, which is set to take place at the Link Centre on Saturday, May 6th.

The game will see a team of Swindon-born and Swindon Ice Hockey Academy-trained players take on a team of players Richardson has played with throughout his time with the Cats.