MISTAKES cost the Wildcats a win tonight against ‘one of the best sides in the league’ Guildford Flames.

Cats suffered their first defeat of the season after they succumb to the Flames 4-2 at the Link Centre.

Second period goals from Marcus Kristoffersson and Matt Towe gave the visitors the lead.

Strikes from Aaron Nell and Jan Kostal in the third period were not enough to get Cats back into the game as goals from Tom Duggan and Ben Campbell gave Guildford the win.

“I thought we played great against one of the best teams in the league tonight and I think we deserved more out of it,” said Aldridge.

“I said to the boys you have to stay positive, we had our chances and they have just got to start bearing down on the goal and scoring.

“We had good chances but it was just three soft plays.

“I think we played as hard as we did last weekend in Manchester but we didn’t make the mistakes then that we made tonight.

“I said to the lady who takes the photographs that I think we are going to win this tonight, I honestly thought we were going to go on and win it, especially when Jan scored that five on three goal.

“That’s the best Guildford team I have ever played against, they have got a solid team.

“It’s too early in the season to be down, we played a great game against a great opposition, we have got to man up and accept that we have made the mistakes, but for the best part of that game we played with them.”

The first goal came in the 23rd minute when David Longstaff sent the puck across the face of the goal to the back post where Kristoffersson was on hand to tap home.

The visitors doubled their lead six minutes later when they found themselves with a two-on-one opportunity and Campbell found Towe who fired hard past Stevie Lyle.

Wildcats got back into the game with 11 minutes left on the clock when Nell came from behind the goal and, with nobody open, he squeezed the ball between the near post and goal tender Gregg Rockman.

However Guildford restored their lead through Tom Duggan, before Wildcats made the most of two Flames players in the sin bin when Kostal scored from distance.

The visitors replied immediately when Campbell was put through one-on-one with Lyle and he wrong footed the stopper to score.

Wildcats pushed for another way into the game and even took off stopper Lyle to give them the extra outfield player but they were unable to prevent suffering their first league defeat.

The loss was doubly as hard for coach Aldridge as the points for the match counted towards both the league and the Challenge Cup, a tournament he has targeted for success this season “Obviously we want to do well in the league but we want to do well in the cup, you know we have our sights on a few things,” he added.

“We want to progress to the next round of the cup this time so it is tough to lose those points as well.”

Cats will now travel to The Spectrum in Guildford tomorrow evening for the return fixture.