SWINDON Wildcats player-coach Aaron Nell admits he was relieved to see his side claim their first points of the play-offs with a 6-3 win over Hull Pirates.

Max Birbraer kept up his good run of form by netting a hat-trick, while Floyd Taylor, Tomasz Malasinski and Jordan Kelsall completed the scoring.

It wasn’t plain sailing for the Cats as they fell behind within 20 seconds at the Link Centre, much to the frustration of Nell.

“IT was a big one tonight. We were under a lot of pressure and it was a must-win hockey game,” he said

“They scored after 14 seconds and everyone thought ‘here we go’ but the boys bounced back really well, we scored six really good goals.

“We showed good character and after Wednesday tonight was a big banana skin. We came out extremely hard and we need to continue that now.”

Birbraer’s triple drew praise from Nell, who also highlighted the return of Sam Bullas after he made his comeback from injury in the home win.

“That’s seven in the last four games. He shot the puck really well tonight, he’s going to be a big player for us for the rest of the way,” added Nell

“We brought Max in (to the club) for this time of year. He brings a presence with him on the ice and people are intimidated by him.

“When you can chip in with goals like that too it makes him a very good player.

“Bully likes this time of year and he was a big presence in the first period. We’ve missed that. We have to manage his injury, it’s almost like a new signing coming in for the play-offs.

Next up for the Wildcats is a trip to Basingstoke Bison and Nell believes his team need to be ready for a battle tomorrow night.

“Games between us and Basingstoke have been good games this year and tomorrow will be another good one,” said

Nell “An away win would be huge. Every game is must-win and tomorrow night is massive, if we can get two points it will put us in a good spot.

“We targeted two wins out of three in the first week and if we can do that it would be a big step forward.

“It will be like a war, it will be a great game to watch and we are looking forward to it.”