TONIGHT we face a huge challenge when welcoming Peterborough Phantoms to the Link Centre for our Autumn Cup semi-final second leg tie.

The Phantoms edged the first leg 4-3 after we were made to pay for our errors following a poor middle period.

We showed our quality in the first period, but we were dominated in the second – we didn’t play well at all.

The third period was an even match, and it was nice to get a late goal and bring our deficit down to one.

Peterborough are a tough team to play – they’ve got a good coach and they’re well-drilled.

They have a lot of similarities to ourselves, and we’re going to have some more fantastic battles against them this season.

But, for now, it’s about focussing on this week and doing our job tonight.

We face different challenges each week, and last weekend we hosted Invicta Dynamos at home – a team that are struggling at the moment as they’ve lost a few players.

When you’re short on numbers and you lose some of your quality guys, it is tough.

Peterborough, by comparison, have a deep line-up, they always do. They’re quite similar to us as they like to have depth.

We’re more than capable of coming from behind on aggregate, we’ve proved that before.

I’ve been in trouble for saying stuff about Peterborough’s ice rink in the past – stuff on social media can come back and bite you!

Peterborough’s rink is a tough place to play, the ice isn’t great. Hopefully we can back up our home form from the season so far and really take the game to them.

I’m having to balance my hockey weekends with my full-time career as a teacher in Nottingham too.

Each week is a logistical challenge and it can be tough at times with all the travelling.

But I love Swindon and I’ve played here for so long.

People probably think I say this for the sake of it, but I really wouldn’t want to play anywhere else in the league.

To have reached my agreement with the club where I can come down at weekends and play is fantastic, and I do mean it when I say that I love the club and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.