SWINDON Wildcats netminder Stevie Lyle hopes that his team will shake off the gloom of inconsistency and give a full account of their quality this weekend.

The Wildcats, who are seventh in the English Premier League table, face the two sides currently below them in the table, with eighth-placed Sheffield Steeldogs visiting the Link Centre today (face-off 5.45pm) before Lyle and co travel to basement boys Bracknell Bees on Sunday (face-off 6pm).

In recent weeks, Swindon have lurched between stirring displays, such as their performance when taking Milton Keynes Lightning to overtime in Buckinghamshire seven days ago, to stuttering showings like the one that saw them fall to a 4-1 home defeat at the hands of Peterborough Phantoms on Wednesday.

With just over a month to go until the play-offs, veteran netminder Lyle believes the Cats have an opportunity to steady themselves against the Steeldogs and Bees.

“For some reason, Peterborough have always been a bit of a bogey team for us,” said the Swindon stopper. They’re third for a reason and their imports and Brits all stick to their system, but we always seem to struggle against them and on Wednesday, they did a job on us.

“We’re seventh in the table and we’re looking to try and go up a few places but we’re playing the two teams below us this weekend.

“They’ll want to try and catch us but I like to think that we’re a better side than they are – but we’ve got to show it.

“We have been a bit up and down and at this point of the season, it’s all about trying to get ourselves right for the play-offs.

“Robin Kovar has come in and we’re trying to get him slotted in properly, and Aaron (Nell, coach) is still working to figure out what all his best lines are so that when we’re in the play-offs, everybody knows what they’ve got to do.”

Lyle, 37, also reckons that the whole Wildcats roster will play a part in creating some upward momentum at the Link Centre.

He added: “I think that with the import rule changing this year, it’s much more of a team game and everybody has to contribute.

“We can’t just rely on Jonas Hoog and Tomasz Malasinski anymore but that’s fine because we’ve got goalscorers all over the ice and I don’t think that I’d wouldn’t swap our imports for anyone else.”