D-MAN Stevie Whitfield has stressed the importance of avoiding an over-reaction as Swindon Wildcats look to bounce back from a rare defeat.

The Cats failed to pick up a point for the first time in eight English Premier League fixtures last time out when they were beaten 3-1 on the road at Peterborough Phantoms last Sunday.

That excellent run of form prior to the setback at Planet Ice has seen Aaron Nell’s side steadily climb the table and they now occupy an encouraging top-four position.

A large part of that has been built on a dominant home run and Swindon will go in search of a sixth successive victory in front of their own fans at the Link Centre on Saturday when they host Guildford Flames, who are the only side to beat them on home ice this term.

With morale sky high in the camp on the back of a superb sequence of results, Whitfield does not want his team-mates to get down in the dumps too much following the Phantoms result and wants them to respond in the best way possible.

“It’s one of those things where we don’t want to get too up when we are 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,” said Whitfield.

“You don’t want to turn a loss or not your best performance into two or three in a row, so you have just got to come back strong and get ready for the next games.

“We have 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.”

Following their meeting with Flames, Swindon face a trip to Hull Pirates on Sunday, a side who sit one place above them in the EPL table.

The Cats made life hard for themselves thanks a slow start in Peterborough last weekend and Whitfield knows they cannot afford to play catch-up again at the Hull Arena.

“It’s important that anywhere you go away from home, you want to stay in the game as long as possible,” said Whitfield.

“We went 2-0 down early on against Peterborough and we set ourselves a steep hill to climb back up.

“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.”