THE Bespoke Guardians Swindon Wildcats head coach Aaron Nell is keen to see his team put together "a string of wins" starting with two against Leeds Knights this weekend.

The Wildcats are second in the National Ice Hockey League, four points behind Telford Tigers with a dozen games left to play.

And with with the Tigers playing third-place Milton Keynes Lightning this weekend, Swindon could potentially close the gap to just two points.

Nell says his team must remain focused on themselves for the time being though as Swindon welcome Leeds to the Link Centre first on Saturday night.

He said: "We've got six weeks to go, and both us and Telford have 12 games each. Milton Keynes are right there too, as are Sheffield.

"We've got to think about only ourselves for the next three or four weeks.

"We've got to keep up with the momentum inside our dressing room that I think we picked up last weekend. If we do that, then we've got chances to win.

"We've got to put a string of wins together, but it will be tough to do that this weekend against Leeds."

The return to league action follows on from a disappointing National Cup semi-final defeat to Sheffield Steeldogs last week when Swindon were 5-3 up on aggregate late on before losing in overtime.

But despite falling short in their quest to win a second trophy of the season, Nell had nothing but good things to see about his team.

He said: "I'm proud of the players. It was two really close games, two really good games, but it was very disappointing not to end up winning the tie given we were two up with five minutes left.

"But Sheffield kept on going, it was a really tight game, and overtime is always a bit of a lottery.

"Unfortunately for us, Sheffield came out on top, but I was really proud of the team for how they played.

"Over the three games (including a 5-2 NIHL win over MK), that was the best weekend we've had since before Christmas, in my opinion.

"We need to try and build on that this weekend."