DEFENCEMAN Shane Moore believes Swindon’s mental resolve is stronger than ever as the Wildcats continue to battle their long list of injuries.

The Link Centre side were without brothers Loris and Floyd Taylor alongside long-term absentees Lee Richardson and Jamie Hayes for Thursday’s 2-1 defeat to Milton Keynes.

Jan Melichar returned from the sidelines to replace Tomas Fojtik and head coach Ryan Aldridge has told the Advertiser that he expects that line-up to remain the same for this weekend’s EPL clashes with Telford and Manchester.

Swindon’s game tally is set to move to three games in four days and Moore said: “We’re always going to have weekends like this. You’ve got to be there both physically and mentally.

“We’ve got a lot of guys playing with knocks, guys who are out ill or injured and it’s played havoc with us, but that’s hockey for you and there’s a lot of teams around the league that are suffering the same thing.

“You have to find ways of battling through it and that’s what we’re doing at the moment. Guys are battling through injuries and that’s what you want because these players want to be involved every night.

“I think it’s not necessarily important where we finish now as we aren’t going to win silverware in terms of the league, but to take momentum into the play-offs is really going to be helpful.

“It’s a habit thing. Teams have a winning mentality and that’s what we need to build.”

Meanwhile, head coach Ryan Aldridge has outlined the importance of avoiding complacency ahead of this weekend’s clashes.

He said: “We’re going to throw everything at Telford and everyone has to show up on Saturday night.

“These games are tough to play sometimes because you get sucked to their level, but also guys think it’s going to be easy.

“We’ve struggled with that for the last two or three years against Telford. We can’t take them like that.

“Manchester are struggling right now but they are always very good at home and we have got to go there and play a solid road game.

“He (netminder Steve Fone) is a huge miss for them, but again we can’t think it’s going to be easy and our goalscorers have to be scoring big goals and our D have to play solid.

“At times we put more pressure on ourselves by not getting pucks out, not making a first pass and waiting and then having turnovers.”