Swindon Wildcats ready for final weekend of regular NIHL National Division

Friday night sees Swindon travel to Sheffield to take on the Steeldogs while Saturday night’s action features Aaron Nell’s men hosting the form team in the league, Peterborough Phantoms.

The Wildcats know even an overtime defeat will see them lock down second place, but Nell wants his players to carry some form into the end-of-season competition.

Speaking to the Cats’ in-house media team, Nell said: “It’s been a long season, but it has flown by.

“It’s been really good hockey, and in the last weekend of the year you want to get ready for the play-offs by keep on building up.

“Last weekend wasn’t the best, but the two weeks before were really good so we’re trending in the right direction at the business end of the season.”

Following Friday night’s clash with the Steeldogs, Swindon take on a Phantoms side which has only failed to win one of its previous eight matches.

Currently sixth, Peterborough is unlikely to jump higher than fifth in the final standings therefore the pair will almost certainly face each other once again in a couple of weeks’ time.

Nell is therefore keen for his Cats to land the first psychological blow before the play-off meeting.

He said: “Sheffield won the national cup earlier this week, so they’ll be full of confidence.

“It’s always a tough trip up there; it’s a big ice pad, and they’ve got really good players. They’re a very good team, so it will be a really tough test.

“Peterborough have been really good over the past two months, and they had a couple of good results last weekend against Leeds and MK.

“Over the past two months, they might be the form team in the league. They’re certainly ramping up the right way going into the play-offs, and they’ll be confident.

“It’s highly likely we’ll play them again in the play-offs, so we’ve got to be ready. The boys want to win at home, we’ve been much better at home recently, and we want to continue that.”