WINNING was all that mattered for player/coach Stevie Lyle as the Swindon Wildcats snatched a dramatic overtime success away at Hull Pirates this evening.

The Cats headed to the Hull Arena on the back of two consecutive defeats in the English Premier League and Lyle said suffering a third was simply not an option.

Tomasz Malasinski had looked to have won the game for the Cats in normal time only for Sam Towner to net for league newcomers Hull with just 11 seconds left on the clock to send the contest into an additional five minutes.

However, the Cats rallied and showed their fighting spirit as Malasinski was again the hero when he netted his second of the game 90 seconds into overtime to secure the win.

All the goals came in a breathless final period following a lacklustre opening three-quarters of an hour, with Aaron Nell cancelling out Lee Bonner’s opener.

The Cats now face a second game on the road in the space of 24 hours as they travel to Planet Ice to take on Peterborough Phantoms tomorrow.

“We set up with a gameplan tonight and it wasn’t very offensive, it was about getting back to basics and making sure we were a lot better at the back and through the middle of the ice,” said player/coach Lyle.

“It wasn’t exciting hockey to watch but we got the right result. We don’t need to play nice hockey on the road, we just need to get the points.

“I take my hat off to Hull, they kept coming after we went 2-1 up and they deserved that last goal, they worked hard for it.

“Going into overtime when it’s three-on-three, I had a feeling our imports would show up and that’s what they did.

“We are a good skating team and some results haven’t gone our way, unfortunately. That wasn’t down to not working hard, it was down to some nights the puck just wasn’t bouncing our way.

“It’s a big win and we needed a win especially with a tough game coming up tomorrow against Peterborough.

"I think we were the better team over the 60 minutes. It’s nice to see a smile back on the boys’ faces.

“We had to get back to winning ways. To lose two in a row is unacceptable and to lose three would have put even more pressure on us going in to tomorrow’s game.”