SWINDON Wildcats player-coach Aaron Nell hopes supporters will see the club’s application to move into the National Ice Hockey League as a positive development as the matter is discussed more fully this weekend.

The Link Centre club applied to join Division One South from next season after being offered advice from English Ice Hockey Association chairman Ken Taggart last month.

The outcome of that bid could be revealed after a meeting to discuss the issue tomorrow.

Should Swindon join the NIHL their number of imports would decrease from five to two, with Polish forward Tomasz Malasinski already signed up for next term, throwing the futures of Jonas Hoog, Jan Kostal, Max Birbraer and Robin Kovar into doubt.

Nell, however, though says a sustainable future for British ice hockey is paramount but hopes supporters will see the benefits of nurturing young domestic talent in particular.

“There is a lot of change going on and I think sometimes people get a bit scared of change but we’re optimistic going in that we’re going to be accepted into the league,’’ said Nell.

“We’re not going into that league to try to disrupt it, we want to be part of a stable and competitive league and hopefully we can help the NIHL sides along in that way.

“The meeting is on Sunday and all we can do is hope we get voted in and that we have a competitive team going forwards.

“This has been coming for a while and I think with the stuff that happened last year in the EPL, teams going bust mid-season, it’s not very good and I think this could be a good thing for British hockey in the long run and for young players.

“Our young players are going to get opportunities at big times and they are going to improve from that.’’