THE Bespoke Guardians Swindon Wildcats capped off a mammoth three games in three days last week by qualifying for the semi-finals of the Autumn Cup.

A huge 7-4 victory against the Raiders on Saturday night in Swindon, combined with other results going the way of the Wildcats, was enough to see the Wildcats through.

Going into the week, Aaron Nell and his team faced a tough ask to qualify knowing they’d need at least five points and other results to go their way to sneak into the final four.

On Thursday evening, the Cats kicked off their triple-header with a trip to Milton Keynes to take on the Lightning but lost 5-4 after disciplinary issues kiboshed a comfortable 4-1 lead.

But the Wildcats put that disappointment behind them on Friday and produced an outstanding 3-0 victory away at Basingstoke Bison.

After a scoreless first period, the first goal of the game was scored by Floyd Taylor at 30:34, before Chris Jones added a powerplay goal for the Wildcats at 31:57.

Going into the final period, the Bison knew to get something from the contest, they’d need to come out of the blocks flying. Fortunately for the Cats, this didn't happen - instead, player-coach Aaron Nell scored after 34 seconds to put the result to bed.

Having already played twice, most would have forgiven the Wildcats for blowing up against their young opponents, but another impressive performance was ground out to see Swindon take victory.

The game couldn’t have started much faster with the Raiders scoring on their first shot on goal after just 18 seconds. Swindon then replied, by doing exactly the same thing with Floyd Taylor scoring on our first shot of the game at 1:21. Emil Svec, returning from a one-game suspension, then added his first of the night at 3:42.

Heading into the middle period, the Raiders equalised through Jacob Ranson at 24:16. However, just over a minute later Balint Pakozdi scored his first of the evening to give the Cats their one goal lead back. Pakozdi added his second of the evening, on the powerplay, at 30:02.

Before the middle period was over, the Wildcats made it 5-2 through Emil Svec at 38:09.

The story of the third period was when the Raiders pulled one back, the Wildcats almost immediately responded. At 41:59 JJ Pitchley cleared up a rebound from Renny Marr to bring the Raiders back within two, before Emil Svec rounded off his hat-trick at 44:47.

Again, Erik Piatak scored his second of the night at 45:38 before the final goal of the evening was added by Nell at 47:59 to complete a 7-4 victory and seal the Wildcats' five points out of a possible six over the weekend.

On Sunday evening, while not playing, the Bees' victory against the Basingstoke Bison was enough to secure Swindon's place in the top four of the Autumn Cup with the semi-finals yet to be decided.

This coming weekend, the league campaign kicks off with a home game against the Sheffield Steeldogs before heading to Shropshire on Sunday for a game with the Telford Tigers.