THE Swindon Wildcats’ trusted general Shane Moore was thrilled to reach a career milestone in the final game of the regular season last weekend.

The 28-year-old, who was born and raised in Swindon and began playing for his hometown club back when they were known at the Lynx, sealed his 500th English Premier League appearance when the Wildcats took on the Manchester Phoenix at the Altrincham Ice Dome on Sunday night.

Moore said: “I’ve had a tough career to be fair, with lots of injuries, but it was really nice to finally be able to achieve that 500-mark, especially on the last game of the regular season.

“I should have been pushed aside by some younger guys by now but I’m still going here and it’s a really nice achievement and a nice honour to have.

“I’m 28-years-old now and I started playing EPL hockey at 14-years-old. It’s been a long old career and it feels like a long one too but at the same time, it’s flown by.

“To be able to get to that 500-mark with Swindon, my hometown team, it’s a really nice feeling.

“I think anyone who plays a sport at professional level will tell you that they’ll never fall out of love with the game.

“I love the sport the same way I did the first moment I first picked up a stick really. When you get out there, it’s a fantastic feeling.

“We learn to hate practice but the game themselves; the emotions are still high and it’s still a great feeling to be involved.

“I think I’m lucky to hit 500. There’s so much talent in the junior leagues now and so much talent coming through at the moment.

“These kids have got such a great future and they’re going to push me aside for sure in the near future.”

Combative D-man Moore is preparing to once again head into the post-season with Swindon and is in confident mood ahead of next weekend’s play-off quarter-final clashes with the Peterborough Phantoms.

The Wildcats man said: “I’m super-excited for the play-offs. I think we’ve got a really good chance.

“(Peterborough are) a great team – Slava Koulikov has them really well-drilled – but we’ve got a great team and we’ve got some great individuals in our team as well and if we fire on all cylinders, there’s no way I can see them beating us over two legs.

“I’d like to see us go to Coventry again. It was a fantastic experience last year and hopefully this can be our year.

“You can look at Swindon as a club and we’ve grown year on year, both in terms of the professional side of things off the ice but also the players and the on-ice product.

“We’ve grown year on year and we’ve climbed our way up, little by little, from eighth to seventh to sixth to fifth and so forth.

“And when we play on our top level, people are scared of us.

“We’ve got guys like Aaron Nell, that act like an extra import; guys like Stevie Lyle that act like an extra import.

“We’ve got four of the best imports in the league so if everyone fires on all cylinders and we play well, I think we’ve got an advantage over most teams in the league.”