Swindon Wildcats hit the ice this weekend aiming to keep the pressure on the EPL’s top teams.
The Wildcats head into the games against Guildford Flames and Hull Pirates having secured six wins from their last eight outings.
A 3-1 defeat at Peterborough Phantoms last Sunday halted the Cats’ progress up the table, but defender Stevie Whitfield has backed the team to bounce back this weekend.
“It’s one of those things where we don’t want to get too up when we’re winning and we can’t mull over losses too much – we need to learn from that game, pick ourselves back up and just go again,” he told the Swindon Advertiser.
“You don’t want to turn a loss or not your best performance into two or three in a row, so you’ve just got to come back strong and get ready for the next games.
“We’ve been on a good run and now it’s the time for us to show character and come back and react well and try to get another win next time.
“You can’t win every night and there are just a few little things that we need to take from it. When you lose, there are mistakes that happen and you just have to learn from it.
“We’ve got two more tough fixtures coming up and we are going to have to be at our best, but we’ve been playing really well of late and it’s important that we just keep doing the same things we’ve been doing.”
Telford Tigers travel to Bracknell Bees on Saturday before returning to home ice against the Phantoms following day, hoping to secure their fourth four-point weekend of the season.
Last Sunday’s 3-2 victory over MK Lightning moved the Tigers three points clear at the top of the table and defender Dan Rose believes it was an important result.
“It was huge for us to beat the Lightning in regulation time – we’ve been to overtime a few times recently, so to avoid that against one of the top teams was great,” said Rose.
“The lads will take a lot of positives from that, in terms of closing down teams and keeping the run going from here.
“The team all want to buy into what we’re doing this season and everyone knows they have a job to do.
“Everyone is selfless, so no matter who scores or who passes, we all get a pat on the back. In other teams you can get players who want to do it all themselves, but not in this squad.
“We’ve got a lot of team guys this year, and everyone knows they have to do their job right.”
WEEKEND FIXTURES
Saturday
Basingstoke Bison v Sheffield Steeldogs
Bracknell Bees v Telford Tigers
MK Lightning v Manchester Phoenix
Peterborough Phantoms v Hull Pirates
Swindon Wildcats v Guildford Flames
Sunday
Guildford Flames v Basingstoke Bison
Hull Pirates v Swindon Wildcats
Manchester Phoenix v Bracknell Bees
Sheffield Steeldogs v MK Lightning
Telford Tigers v Peterborough Phantoms
(Image permission: Steve Bird)
