SWINDON Wildcats D-man Stevie Whitfield says he feels like part of the furniture at the club after agreeing to stay on for the 2018-19 season.

The 27-year-old is the longest serving player at the Link Centre having originally signed for the club in 2008, and is closely followed by forward Sam Bullas, who has remained with the Cats ever since joining in 2009.

The defenceman is the first player to commit to player-coach Aaron Nell’s roster for next season and admits it wasn’t a difficult decision to make.

“It was the first time I’ve had to talk to Aaron about a contract in a little while. It was a quick conversation because the club is heading in the right direction,” said Whitfield, who has scored twice this season.

“I feel like part of the furniture here, in the right way, because the club is moving in the right direction and we are competing for trophies.

“Every year that I have been here the club has got better and now we are in a position where we can win trophies. I want to be a part of that in Swindon for as long as I can.

“I feel pretty good personally, I am getting a bit of experience and hopefully that means I am helping the younger boys a bit.

“I’ve managed to come up with a couple of goals, but that might not be happening too much – I don’t think Aaron signed me to score goals.

“It’s down to how we play. I can jump in a little bit more because we are covering a bit more and I have got lucky in front of the net.”

With a couple of cup finals to navigate between now and the end of the season, starting with the Autumn Trophy final first leg away at Basingstoke Bison on Friday night, Whitfield says it is important the club keep up their good form.

On the back of a hectic schedule, which has seen the Cats ice 22 times since the turn of the year, Whitfield urged his teammates to stay focussed for the end-of-season run-in.

“Every game is important. We need to just knuckle down and try to keep winning as often as we can,” said Whitfield.

“Obviously we have two big Autumn Trophy games to play against Basingstoke coming up, so we’re excited for those.

“It’s been different this year because we haven’t really had much of a routine and we haven’t been training as much as we would usually.

“You do get into a rhythm so you just have to recover in between the games and be ready to play at all times.”