THE Bespoke Guardians Swindon Wildcats claimed a potentially vital four points in their hunt for a top-four finish at the weekend thanks to wins over The Bees and Sheffield Steeldogs.

Prior to Sunday’s away clash with Sheffield, head coach Aaron Nell stated that it would be almost impossible to finish the season in fourth if fifth-place Swindon did not beat their direct competition on both remaining occasions.

Following a gritty 3-2 success over the struggling Bees at the Link Centre on Saturday night, the Wildcats thumped the Steeldogs 5-1 in Yorkshire 24 hours later.

Goals from Nell, Sam Bullas, and Chris Jones secured victory on Saturday night before a rare Tyler Plews effort on Sunday pushed Swindon in the right direction against Sheffield.

Speaking to the Wildcats’ media team about the defenceman’s strike, Nell said: “It was Tyler’s first of the year. He was great for us, he made some great blocks in the third period, and I’m really happy he scored.”

After Alex Graham equalised 13 seconds later, Swindon went back in front early in the second period thanks to Balint Pakozdi.

The hosts then made the most of a five-on-three powerplay in the third period to put the game beyond Sheffield. Colby Tower netted twice inside the opening eight minutes, and Nell put the icing on the cake with an empty-net finish late on.

Nell said: “We played really well. We started the game well and we got one goal, but they got one straight back. But the first period was really good, we kept on going, and it was a well-deserved win.

“The third goal was big. Our five on three at the end of the second period wasn’t very good, but Colby got two big goals in the third period. After that, we were pretty comfortable.

“Sheffield are very good, they’re very skilled, and they’ve got a lot of good players, but we played really hard tonight. When we play together like that, we have a lot of success. The boys are doing really well right now.”