Wildcats face make-or-break test (From Swindon Advertiser)

Wildcats face make-or-break test

8:00am Friday 19th February 2010 in

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SWINDON Wildcats’ clash with Bracknell on Sunday is a must-win game, according to wing Matt Foord.

The 28-year-old believes that the Link Centre side will wave goodbye to their hopes of making the English Premier League play-offs, if they return from Berkshire with anything other than a victory.

Ninth-placed Swindon are currently three points behind the Bees in the table having played two games more, and Sunday’s opposition are the only team Wildcats can realistically overhaul by the end of the regular season.

“It’s a massive, massive game,” Foord told the Advertiser.

“At the start of the season, if you had said to me that we would be in a battle with Bracknell for a play-off place, I don’t think I would have believed you, but that’s the situation we’re in.

“It’s hard to say a whole season revolves around one game, but we definitely have to win it.”

Swindon have one more meeting with Bracknell in the league on March 6 and Foord added: “I think realistically we’re going to have to win both of them, you can’t afford to take chances.

“Bracknell seem to be our nemesis - we haven’t had great results against them or played great against them.

“If we beat them on their own ice it gives us a little bit more confidence heading into our next meeting.”

Foord believes Swindon have shown signs of a revival recently, and even his side’s rivals have noticed the difference.

“In the Milton Keynes games we showed we’re a team that can play well, we just need to do that for 60 minutes,” he said.

“I was speaking to their player-manager Nick Poole after the game and he said he didn’t understand how we were in the position we were in.

“It could be one of the problems that everyone wants to win so badly, that we do tend to try a little bit too hard.

“There’s working hard and working smart and as long as we work the systems and play as a team, there’s no danger of us losing against Bracknell.”

Swindon were defeated 4-1 by high-flying Slough Jets on Wednesday, which Foord feels painted a slightly false picture of proceedings at the Link Centre.

“It was a misleading scoreline,” he said. “We had chances to win the game and those are the difference.

“At the moment it seems every bounce goes against us, and other teams seem to get goals that go in off shin pads and all sorts.”