SWINDON Wildcats forward Luc Johnson believes continuity will be key for his side as the club set their sights on consecutive league titles for the first time in their history.

The Wildcats tasted success in NIHL South One last term – putting a barn-storming 15-game winning run together in the back-end of the season to wrap up the title with a handful of fixtures remaining.

And with the vast majority of that squad returning for another crack in 2019-20, Johnson is hoping to repeat the trick when the National League season starts this weekend.

Aaron Nell’s side have warmed up for the new season in indifferent style, winning two and losing two of their challenge matches, while their home games featured a loss against Bracknell Bees and a victory against Telford Tigers.

Johnson says his team-mates procured everything they needed from their two-week warm up and are now eager to put into practice what they often perfected last season.

“We’ve got through pre-season now and we’re all ready to go,” said Johnson.

“It’s always helpful to have that chemistry with players that you’ve played with either last season or the year season.

“It always helps, especially when there’s 90 or 95 per cent of us that have played together in some form at some point.

“The league is the main goal for the team, but we haven’t set little targets for the time being.

“That will come every month or so during the season.”

Johnson – who iced more than 40 times for the Wildcats last term – is joined by returning fans’ favourite Tomasz Malasinski on the Swindon roster for the 2019-20 season.

Former England U18s international Johnnson is far from short of talent himself, but says the returning Malasinski is “night and day different” compared to the other leading lights in the league.

The 22-year-old therefore believes his Polish team-mate will prove too much for the majority of defensive lines up and down the country.

Johnson said: “As long as we play the way we can play and play the way we did last season, with the added talent of Tomasz and everyone else, I think we’ll have no problems in the league.

“I trained with Tomasz when I was with the Okanagan Academy, but this pre-season has been the first time at Swindon I’ve been out on the ice with him and he is night and day different to anything else we’ve seen in the league before.

“He is definitely a difference maker, that’s for sure.”