SWINDON Wildcats player-coach Aaron Nell has demanded that the team’s imports lead by example as they look to get back to winning ways tomorrow night.

The Cats suffered a twin loss on the road last weekend, seeing their hopes of qualification English Premier League Cup semi-finals come crashing down at Basingstoke Bison before being thumped 6-0 in the league at Telford Tigers 24 hours later.

Swindon are struggling with a spate of injuries at present, with Nell himself ruled out for the remainder of the campaign following shoulder injury, but he says they cannot afford to use that as an excuse.

With just one fixture awaiting the Cats this weekend when they welcome Sheffield Steeldogs to the Link Centre on Saturday, Nell does not their disappointment to linger and urges his import players to set the tone for the side.

“It wasn’t nice. It was always going to be a tough weekend, we knew that, but the performances – other than six or seven minutes on Sunday and six or seven minutes on Saturday – weren’t good enough and that’s not acceptable,” said Nell.

“Our older players, our leaders and our imports have got to step up.

“We are a team where our imports are very good but they need to be better, they need to be the best players on the ice and last weekend they weren’t and that’s the reality of it. Our imports are supposed to be our top players and last weekend they weren’t.

“It is all well and good saying we have got a young team but if our imports don’t turn up, like last weekend, we are always going to struggle and we need to be better.”

Although the onus is on the senior members of the squad to come to the fore, Nell says it is up to every player to stand up and be counted when the chips are down.

Sheffield currently sit third from bottom in the table and were beaten 7-3 on their previous trip to the Link Centre last month, so Nell says nothing less than two more league points will do tomorrow.

“People have to do things that normally they probably wouldn’t like doing. Everyone has got to make sacrifices for the team, it’s not all going to be plain sailing and easy,” said Nell.

“To be successful, we have got to come together. We can’t be down at each other, we have got to come together and do more.

“Everyone can give more after last weekend and that’s what we are going to have to do this weekend. We have got one massive game and we have got to win it.”