PLAYER-COACH Aaron Nell bemoaned a lack of discipline in last weekend’s double defeat for his team and says Swindon Wildcats “owe their supporters a performance” against the Raiders this time around.

Swindon were comprehensively beaten twice by Basingstoke Bison on Friday and Saturday night, going down 6-2 at the Link Centre before a 7-4 battering on their travels.

Sunday should have featured a third fixture in three days, but electrical issues at the Slough Ice Arena prevented the Wildcats from taking on The Bees.

Nell’s men had not tasted defeat in any of their six games previously, but a stark reminder of the division’s quality was handed out to prevent the Cats from getting ahead of themselves.

Reflecting on a disappointing couple of days for Swindon, Nell was particularly frustrated with the number of penalties given away.

He said: “I think it was a good lesson for us. We weren’t good enough in every aspect. You can’t go down by three and four goals in games if you want to be successful.

“I thought Basingstoke wanted it more than us, and the worst thing – looking back – was our discipline.

“We were really ill-disciplined throughout the weekend. We had nine penalties in the offensive zone over the two games, and that’s just not acceptable.

“We could have played any team in the league and we would have lost both games. It wasn’t good enough, and we need to improve this weekend.”

The upcoming double-header against The Raiders will provide Swindon with a chance to bounce back against the team which finished stone-dead last in both the league and Autumn Cup standings in 2021-22.

But Nell believes the London-based side will be a far more difficult prospect this season after making a handful of quality additions.

Previewing this weekend’s opponents, the Cats’ player-coach said: “They’ve definitely improved over the summer, they’ve made some really good signings.

“They had a tough weekend last time out too, so I think it will be two desperate teams that badly want the points.

“Saturday is a really big game for us – really big. We owe our fans a performance because last Friday wasn’t good enough.

“It’s going to be a really tough game because they’ve got a really good top end. Their top line is excellent with some top players on it, but we need to come out and show the fans what we’re about because we weren’t good enough last week.”