PLAYER-COACH Aaron Nell has warned his Wildcats players they need to keep things tight at Planet Ice this evening.

The Cats make the trip to Basingstoke Bison for the opening leg of their Autumn Cup final, before Bison make their way to Swindon a week later.

Despite last week’s disappointing postponement, the 27-year-old says he has had no trouble reinvigorating his troops for the game.

“It hasn’t been hard to motivate the players again at all. I know the players are looking forward to it,” said Nell “They’ve been looking forward to it for a while and we won’t have to say much about it. We did some planning on Thursday night and the players can’t wait.

“We need to try and keep it tight while we are there. With them playing at home, they are going to try and get an advantage.

“Obviously we want to go and try to win the game in Basingstoke but it is important that we keep it tight.

“They’re a very good team at home and we have to respect that. It’s two tough teams, we beat them at their place and they beat us in Swindon - it’s just going to be two good hockey games."

The Cats have also been boosted by the recent return of teenager Jordan Kelsall, while Nell revealed Toms Rutkis will not feature.

Kelsall made a scoring return to action last weekend against the Bracknell Bees and Nell says there is still more to come.

“We won’t have Toms. We have Jordan now, so we have a full line-up,” he added.

“Toms was brought in for while we had a lot of injuries, but we have a full line-up now and everyone is excited to play.

“Jordan looked good last week against Bracknell. He is still a little bit away from where he was in January but that is to be expected.

“He scored a good goal last week and was a boost to the line-up, he will give us a lot more options on the ice.

“Everyone else is fit, we are all good and we can’t wait to get going.”