RYAN Aldridge is planning to bench coach for the rest of the EPL campaign as he believes it will be in the Wildcats’ best interests.

The head coach had iced in every game of the season up until Saturday’s 5-2 win over Telford, before he stepped in to cover for the injured Juha Silvander in the 7-1 loss to Slough on Sunday.

However, Aldridge is planning to remain on the sidelines as much as he possibly can from now on, in order to get his message across to the players throughout games.

“I think I will bench coach for the majority of the season or at least for the foreseeable future, unless we get really hit with injuries,” said Aldridge.

“We have some players that need talking to in a positive way throughout the whole game, rather than just between period breaks.

“Saturday was the perfect game to do it and we seemed to be successful. On Sunday we were short and I was trying to do a little bit of both, but in hindsight I wish I hadn’t.”

Swindon will be hopeful of turning round their difficult run of results when they face reigning EPL regular season champions Guildford in a double-header this weekend.

A Saturday EPL-Cup game at the Link Centre will be followed by a pure league game at the Spectrum on Sunday and Aldridge has emphasised the importance of a strong rearguard against a team blessed with plenty of attacking talent.

“In the first 10 minutes we’ll see how the game goes but I’d like to take it to them and then maybe go to a slightly more defensive system after that,” he said.

“The one thing we have to be obsessed with is our defensive zone off the rush and off the cycle.

“Guildford are very good off the rush, very good on the cycle and going east to west and getting the D moving.

“We struggle when he have to make switches, but that’s something we’ve been working on for the last few weeks.”

Jonas Hoog and Sam Bullas will be in the line-up this weekend after suffering minor knocks on Sunday, but Silvander looks set to miss out with a groin complaint.

“If we’re short of an import this weekend then that will put us in a real tough situation,” said Aldridge.

“If that happens then we’ve just got to battle through it and play as smart as we can.”