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Nell Rues A Flat Performance, As Cats Are Sunk In Overtime By Pirates
Swindon Wildcats' head coach Aaron Nell believes his side simply did not get going, as they lost out to bottom-placed Hull Pirates in a 5-4 overtime thriller on Humberside.
Speaking to Total Sport following the full-time buzzer, an exhausted Nell struggled to disguise his disappointment in his team's defeat.
"We were lucky to be where we were. We just weren't good enough tonight. Maybe we just thought we would turn up and beat the Hull Pirates, just like that, I don't know," Nell began.
"They (Hull) worked hard tonight and we didn't match it. It's disappointing because we have a good thing going here. The first period was our worst period of the year, and it wasn't good enough," he added.
Pirates got off to a two goal lead early on in the first period, hitting Swindon with fast-paced hockey on the counter.
"The wind was taken out of our sails before their goals even went in, it was just flat," Nell admitted.
At two nil down and entering the second period, Nell opted to make the call to switch young netminder Jordan Hedley with the experienced head of Stevie Lyle.
"I shouldn't have to put Stevie Lyle in the goal against the Hull Pirates," Nell explained.
"We let Jordan (Hedley) out to dry tonight and I feel sorry for him for that. It's not good enough, and if we want to be a good team in this league we have to learn to win the ugly side of the games.
"Tonight and last Sunday are two games we should have won, and if we had we would be in a different spot right now," said Nell.
In a game fraught with penalty calls, Nell conceded his side need to curb this part of their game, or else risk losing out in games like they did against the Pirates.
"We just got too many penalties tonight, our penalty kills are not always going to be unbelievable and it's going to start biting us," said Nell.
"It comes from the start though, the warm-up was flat and just not good enough from there," he added.
Entering a nail-biting overtime period, the Wildcats were soon hit with a two minute penalty as D-man Neil Liddiard was penialised for hooking.
Commenting upon his mindset as the call was given, meaning Wildcats would have to face Hull three on four, Nell said:
"It's a call, it's just something that happens. We've got to try and kill the penalty, but four on three for two minutes is tough, especially when we've got one of our best penalty killers off the ice."
Despite still picking up a point, the missed opportunity of a maximum points weekend now means Wildcats have their work cut out for them, according to Nell.
He said: "If we would have won tonight, we would have had a game that we could afford to lose, but now we haven't.
"Next weekend there does not come many much tougher, but we've got to get two wins. If we want to keep up and be a good team we have to win the two games next week, and we shouldn't have really put ourselves under that pressure but we have, and that's the way it is."
Nell insists an element of balance and consistently strong hockey is now required, if his Swindon side are to fully impose themselves upon the league.
"It's a matter of consistency. Winning can't be an ocassion, it's got to be a normality. We have good people that lead us, all of us need to follow our top guys - Tomasz, (Malasinski) Jan, (Kostal) Stevie, (Lyle) and Lidds (Neil Liddiard).
"We had a couple of opportunites tonight but otherwise it was a bit glum and dead, that has to change," Nell added.
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