Snapped: Swindon Wildcats V Manchester Phoenix 14/2/2015

SWINDON Wildcats were in winning ways on Sunday night as they romped home with a 4-2 victory over the visiting Manchester Phoenix. TGtS was there too see the action unfold...

THE style and presence of Swindon Wildcats’ 4-2 triumph over Manchester Phoenix on Sunday (15th of February) has given Ryan Aldridge belief that his side’s season is alive and kicking heading into the EPL play-offs.

Following Thursday night’s 10-5 defeat away at Phoenix, which saw the Cats eliminated from the Challenge Cup following the humiliating defeat, Aldridge had been concerned the loss could have had a lasting effect on his side.

But goals from Jonas Hoog, Tomasz Malasinski, Tomas Kana and Aaron Nell saw the hosts get back to their winning ways at the earliest opportunity against their conquerors and, while it wasn't a famous display, it was enough to convince Aldridge that his side still have it all to play for.

“It’s tough because we don’t want to keep talking about Thursday night, although we kind of have to, but with the kind of team we’ve got and how we’ve been in years past we could easily have shut down and ended our years,” he said.

“I was impressed with how our boys scraped through, so I’m very happy with the win.

“The last couple of weeks have been up and down with cup games and midweek games and things like that, so this week’s good because we have tomorrow off to unwind and stay away from hockey for a couple of extra days.

“Then we’ll come back more focussed and hopefully get things going again.”

Sunday night's game was delayed by over 90 minutes due to the Phoenix late arrival, which the head coach insisted caused issues for both sides regarding preparation for the game.

“It’s tough when you’re messing around before the games, you don’t know when you want to do your routines and things like that,” he said.

“We kept having different messages and different times, so it is tough, because you start losing focus and start messing around with each other and things like that.”