AARON Nell says fitness is the top priority for his Swindon Wildcats side over pre-season as they open up their summer fixture programme tonight.

Swindon begin life as an NIHL club on Saturday, September 16 in their league opener at home to Milton Keynes Thunder but have four friendlies to negotiate before then.

The Cats face Bracknell Bees at home and away this weekend – beginning at the Link Centre this evening – before a similar double header against Peterborough Phantoms next weekend.

Although player-coach Nell would love to triumph in all of those fixtures, the primary goal is to get his team physically ready for the start of the competitive action.

“Fitness is the first thing and getting in game shape but we are also stressing work ethic and working on some systems,” he said

“It’s all about getting ready for that first game on September 16. It is four big games and if we don’t win it’s OK but we want to get four wins and set a good marker against four good teams.

“We want to go into that first game firing so having two weeks of pre-season is going to be good for us.

“The old way we did it with the Wednesday games, we were knackered going into that first game of the season, so having just two games on each weekend will help us.”

Nell has set expectations high for the coming campaign and has challenged the Cats to be involved in the battle for honours.

A fast start to the season will help that, so Nell hopes that any kinks on his roster can be ironed out over pre-season.

“The aim is to be right at the top and we need to make sure we get off to a good start,” said Nell.

“We’ve had some good first practices and I think we are going to have a good year but we have to work hard and stick together.

“There has been a lot of change but I am really happy with the team we have got and we have got more depth than we had last year.

“There are some young guys that will really improve as the season goes on and the older guys will show their experience and help them along the way.”