Leeds Knights v Swindon Wildcats: Defending play-off champions Knights ready to step up the intensity again

The Wiltshire team, where Aldridge worked behind the bench from 2009-2015, lost out 4-3 in overtime to Manchester Phoenix in the semi-finals.

This weekend will see Aldridge return to the Skydome Arena, but it will only be a year on from the last time he was there, steering his Leeds Knights team to a nail-biting 5-4 win in the final against Raiders IHC, a triumph which sealed a memorable league and play-off double for his players.

The Knights are targeting a repeat double this weekend having already retained their regular season league title, but it is their head coach’s former club who stand in their way in today’s semi-final.

Despite the Wildcats being his hometown team and where he has spent a large part of his playing and coaching career, there is clearly no doubt as to where Aldridge’s loyalties lie today.

As much respect and affection as he has for the Wildcats and their player-coach and close friend Aaron Nell, Aldridge will have no room for sentiment once the puck drops around 1.30pm.

There will no doubt be similar, heated arguments between players and coaches as there has been in an exceedingly close head-to-head series between the two teams during the 2023-24 NIHL National regular seasoncampaign.

But, once the final buzzer sounds and a winner is determined, things will return to normal, friendships will be resumed.

For Aldridge, games against Swindon during his time at Leeds have often been the most intense, physical encounters for his players.

The unique ownership situation no doubt plays a part, Knights’ owner Steve Nell having also been in control at Swindon since 2004, although the day-to-day running of the Wildcats operation has now passed to his sons Aaron and Lewis, with Nell Snr remaining a director.

Aldridge expects a similarly fierce encounter in front of a sellout Skydome Arena crowd today.

“It’s a tough semi-final, a massive game, for lots of different reasons,” said Aldridge, “I don’t think it gets much bigger to be honest.

“They are always our hardest games, without a shadow of a doubt. You have your derby games, your local rivalries, but Swindon are by far our toughest games, our most physical games, our most demanding games - they always come at us, they don’t have to get up for the games against us.

“I think it’s like that because of where we are in terms of the ownership situation and both of us probably wanting to prove to people that we’re not linked in any way.

“Aaron and me are good friends, we’re very close and have been for years. Things do get heated at times during games, but afterwards we shake hands and walk away from it.

“There’s a lot of respect there and we both know each other is going to be desperate to win on Saturday.”

For many, the Knights go into the weekend as favourites and with some justification, having already proved a considerable number of doubters wrong who questioned whether they could retain their league title.

They did so and, much like the first time around, in some degree of comfort, too.

With that, though, comes increased pressure to sustain that level of success, although Aldridge believes his players have grown accustomed to dealing with the expectations placed on their shoulders over the past 20 months or so.

“A lot of people wrote us off at the start of the year when we lost Cole (Shudra) and a few of the other boys didn’t come back for whatever reason,” added Aldridge, who takes a fully-fit roster down to Coventry.

“Some people didn’t believe we stood a chance of winning the title again, but these boys have been outstanding.

“There have been a lot of tough games. It’s funny when you look back across the year, it looks like a bit of a breeze but I can assure you, it certainly hasn’t been - this has been a struggle, much like it was the first time around.

“And I’m proud of all of them, they’ve had to dig deep sometimes but, over the year, our record shows how they have been switched on throughout.

“For a group of young men, to do what they have done, makes them a pretty special bunch in my eyes.”

Of course, should the Knights be unable to pull off another league and play-off double, their third season will in no way be regarded a failure, as that second league title proves.

“Over the course of the season, we’ve obviously been good and we showed that we can compete,” said Alrdidge.

“When we lost out in the Cup semi-final to the Seahawks, we were in our lull and that was the first lull we’d had in 18 months. And it was a real lull - we just couldn’t put things together and that happens, it happens to every team most years, in most sports.

“So we’ve got through that and they’ve just been an amazing group all year. Coming into this weekend, can we go and win it? Yeah, of course we can but, if we don’t, then these boys have still been unbelievable and we thank them for what they have done.”