AARON Nell is keen to see his players build on their impressive work-rate levels when facing London Raiders and Streatham in NIHL South One this weekend.

Back-to-back wins against Basingstoke Bison last weekend stretched the Wildcats’ unbeaten league run to 12 games, while their lead at the top of the division now stands at six points.

The favourable position means little to player-coach Nell, though, who was quick to praise his side’s efforts last weekend, but at the same time, warned the dangers that this weekend’s opposition pose.

He said: “The players were fantastic last weekend, and they deserved the two wins because of how hard and committed they were.

“I was very happy with them.

“London Raiders’ form over the last two or three months is good enough for them to be classed as a top-four team.

“They’re a confident team and beat Peterborough on Sunday, in addition to their two wins against us in our last three meetings.

“It will be a tough game, but we will ensure that we play in the same manner to what we have in recent weeks.

“Streatham are a team that you must stay switched on against.

“Some of their senior players are very good. They’re winning often in recent weeks, and teams will want to end our streak.”

Part of the Cats’ success since the turn of the year will naturally fall on forward Jonas Hoog – who has experienced just one competitive loss since being confirmed as Swindon’s first mid-season signing on Christmas Day.

Hoog’s play-making ability shone through during last weekend’s home tie against Basingstoke, but Nell insists that hard work in the week has been the key ingredient to his side’s transformation in form since the festive period.

He added: “It’s now that we have to start working even harder, and there certainly won’t be any complacency.

“The success we have had over the past few weeks has been a result of hard work. Just because we have won a few big games doesn’t mean our approach will change.

“After going down in the first period, the result could have easily gone the wrong way. But there was no panic, it was good that the bad two minutes we had was at the end of the first period so we could regroup.

“We played a great last 40 minutes to win. And Sunday was the perfect performance.”