AARON Nell thanked the Manchester Phoenix side that fulfilled their fixture against his Swindon Wildcats on Saturday night.

The Phoenix face an uncertain future after their owner Neil Morris walked away from the club earlier this month – they scheduled and then postponed a ‘farewell party’ in midweek – but the North West outfit still turned up with a team to take on the Wildcats at the Link Centre.

Jonas Hoog, Michael Stratford, Phil Hill, Max Birbraer and Adam Finlinson notched as Nell’s troops ran out 5-0 winners against a Manchester roster made up primarily of National League players.

At the Link, Cats staff collected donations to aid the Phoenix’s plight and head coach Nell was pleased to see his men pull off a professional job against a group of players playing for pride.

“It’s been touch and go all week,” said the Swindon chief, who was able to hand debuts to Okanagan Academy youngsters Michael Power, Harvey Robson and Deakan Fielder.

“It was good that we had a game and we can’t thank the Manchester players enough – they could have easily not turned up tonight.

“The ones that have been there a while played hard tonight and then they had the ones from the NIHL, and those boys worked hard too, so as a club, we can’t thank the boys that played and Tony (Hand, Phoenix head coach) for sorting it all out.

“I’d like to thank them but we had to make sure that we won tonight and I thought it was a decent game.

“It is tough but their goalie (Stephen Fone) played really well and he made some big, big saves.

“We could have been a little bit better but these games are tough and it was important to get through without any injuries.

“They had nothing to lose and we had everything to lose, so it was good to see a couple of the younger players get more ice-time and have a look at a few of the boys from the Okanagan team.

“The three lads (Power, Dobson and Fielder) played their first games tonight and they did well.

“It’s a big step-up from what they’re used to and Mikey almost scored a couple of goals in the first period, so they did well and they’ve got bright futures in front of them.”

Cats go to the Guildford Flames tomorrow (face-off 6pm) but have suffered another long-term injury blow with the news that Canadian D-man Mark Smith has been ruled out for the season.

Earlier this month, Smith was sidelined with a chest complaint but a neck problem looks set to keep him out of action for the remainder of the current campaign.