SWINDON Wildcats head coach Aaron Nell believes the club’s inconsistency in results so far this term is down to a problem “between the ears” of his players.

The Wildcats have won eight of their 14 fixtures in the National Ice Hockey League while conceding just 10 goals in the process.

However, the problem for Nell’s team has been failing to link wins together over the course of a weekend – Swindon have only managed it twice this term.

Currently on a run of five games without consecutive results one way or the other, Nell says the current quality and experience levels in the Wildcats squad means there should be no excuses for the turbulence the side is currently going through.

Nell said: “It’s been so inconsistent so far – even the difference between our wins and losses is night and day.

“We’ve had some really bad losses, and when we’re bad, we’re really bad. When we’re good, we’ve shown that we can really shut teams down. We are so up and down.

“I don’t think we’ve had such an inconsistent start before when we’ve had the quality we’ve currently got now. Six or seven years ago, we had inconsistent starts, but we didn’t have as good a team as we have now.

“It’s all between the ears, for me. Players need to be more switched on. It’s my job to make sure they’re more switched on, and we’re doing everything we can to make sure they are.”

Following last weekend’s 3-2 defeat at home to The Bees, and the subsequent 5-0 win away at Hull Seahawks, Swindon head into two highly difficult fixtures against Steve Nell’s other club, Leeds Knights, and in-form Peterborough Phantoms.

Ahead of ‘Nell Clasico’, Steve’s son Aaron believes the pair of tricky nights are exactly what his team requires to show what they’re about.

Nell junior said: “I think these two games are the perfect pair of fixtures to see what we’re really made of.

“We couldn’t be playing two tougher games. Peterborough is probably the toughest away game we play, and this year they’ve got a better team than they’ve had over the past two seasons.

“And then Leeds, they’ve been by far the best team so far this season. They always play well against us, and then you’ve got the situation with the ownership. So this weekend will be a big test for us.”