SWINDON Wildcats head coach Aaron Nell believes that his team will be lighting the blue touch paper on a vital period of their season when they host Milton Keynes Lightning tonight.

Cats tackle their first midweek assignment of their 2016-17 campaign by locking horns with MK (face-off 7.45pm) and next weekend, they take on reigning regular season champions Basingstoke Bison at the Link Centre before hitting the road to play Sheffield Steeldogs.

All three clashes double as fixtures for the English Premier League Cup, with Nell’s men currently fourth in the standings in the final qualification spot for the knockout stages.

Meanwhile, Swindon are fifth in the regular league table, with the Lightning, who will be stepping up to join the Elite League next term, currently occupying second place and chief Nell will be ordering his troops to throw everything into a challenging yet vital five days.

“By Sunday, we’ll have played everybody in the league and we’ll know a lot more about where we are and where we’re going to be in the cup too,” said the Cats boss.

“It’s probably our biggest week of the season and we’re going to leave everything out there – we’d better be very tired on Sunday.

“We’re going to have to play very well but if we can get some good results out of these games, then we’ll be very, very happy with our season so far.”

Last weekend, the Wildcats beat Guildford Flames 7-6 on Saturday before slipping to a 7-4 loss on the road at Hull Pirates on Sunday.

Against MK, they will be without the services of D-man Callum Buglass, who was forced out of the Hull game with a shoulder injury, as well as youngsters Toms Rutkis and Ollie Stone.

Nell said: “Sunday wasn’t a 7-4 hockey game at all. We pulled our netminder for their last two goals and we didn’t get the luck but our performance was very good.

“MK are a very good team with some good players and it’s going to be very tough.

“We’ve got a few injuries at the moment too – Callum is out and so are Toms and Ollie – so we’re a little bit short but when that happens, people have to come together and work that little bit harder.

“We brought Ben Nethersell in on Sunday. He’s been on a two-way (contract) with Oxford and he did very well, so he’ll be involved again for us.”