SWINDON Wildcats player-coach Aaron Nell has targeted a strong sequence of results to close 2018 as his side look to cement their place at the top of the NIHL South One table.

Back-to-back wins over last season’s top two sides, Basingstoke Bison and Peterborough Phantoms, have catapulted Swindon to the head of the standings.

The Cats have a dozen more fixtures remaining before the turn of the year – starting at home to Milton Keynes Thunder and away at Bracknell Bees this weekend – and then two more in early 2019 before a mid-season break.

All of those contests have league points riding on them, so Nell is keen to see his troops pick up a hefty haul in that time in the hope that they can continue to set the pace.

“It is still very early, but you’d always prefer to be at the top than not,” said Nell.

“But we are not going to get carried away. We will keep taking it one week at a time and keep trying to put some more good wins on the board.

“There is another big weekend coming up and we need to make sure it wasn’t just a good weekend last time – we want it to be another good weekend this time too.

“I think we have 14 games left before a week off in January. They are all league games and we don’t have any cups to worry about, so we can have a really good push at it and see where we are come the new year.”

Although the consecutive wins over Basingstoke and Peterborough represented one of Swindon’s best weekends of the season, Nell does not think it has raised the level of expectation on his side.

“We were excellent last weekend. We played two really good games and came out with two good wins. We’re in a good place at the moment,” said Nell.

“Maybe we have got a little bit of a target on our back now, but I think we’ve been amongst the front-runners since the season started anyway.

“Ourselves and Peterborough have played the fewest games so far – Peterborough have played even less than us, so over the next few weeks it will even itself out and we will see where people are.”

Swindon only hold top spot on goal difference from the side they face on Sunday – Bracknell.

That match is the only one the Bees have to worry about this weekend, and with his own troops having a home game against Thunder on Saturday to contend with as well, Nell expects a stiff examination of the Cats’ credentials.

“Bracknell don’t play on the Saturday, so we know they will come out on Sunday fresh and ready to go as hard as possible,” said Nell.

“It’s a big challenge this weekend, but we’re looking forward to it.”