IT WAS a frustrating evening in Sheffield for Wildcats and head coach Ryan Aldridge as they saw their unbeaten away record slip away.

Swindon lost for the first time on the road as they were beaten 3-1 by Sheffield Steeldog’s and the players were left ruing a host of missed chances.

Having a game on Saturday night it took Swindon a while to get into the tie and the hosts had a steely defence to thank as they claimed their second win of the weekend.

Tom Squires, Craig Elliott and Andrew Hirst all got on the score-sheet for Sheffield as they secured their second win of the weekend.

Tomasz Malsinski halved the deficit in the first period but despite dominating possession in the final two periods Wildacts could not find a way past the games man of the match Dalibor Sedlar.

“I said to the boys they have got to take the positives out of the third period, but I think we just took too long to get going,” said Aldridge.

“I don’t think it was a 3-1 hockey game and obviously outshooting them the way we outshot them as well, especially in that third period when we had the chances to get at least one goal back if not two it was a bit frustrating.

“We didn’t play for the whole 60 minutes I don’t think, I think we took the first 15 minutes off.

“We had chances, that is the frustrating thing, three or four times the puck just rolled straight across the face of the goal without getting tapped in.

“Aaron missed one back door, which he wouldn’t normally miss, so it is frustrating but it just wasn’t to be tonight.”

The Wildcats went into the match unbeaten on the road having already seen off last season’s champions Manchester Phoenix and Guildford Flames last Sunday.

However it was the hosts who took the lead after eight minutes in confusing circumstances.

It looked like play had been stopped but Squires played to the whistle and squeezed the puck past Stevie Lyle and after some debate the goal was given.

Elliott quickly doubled the lead for the home side less than a minute later, after poking home from a bit of a goal mouth scramble.

Wildcats got themselves back into the match after 14 minutes through Malasinski.

It all looked very simple as Aaron Nell picked up the loose puck behind the Steeldogs’ net and pulled it back to Malasinski for a fine finish.

Wildcats came out in the second period and looked the better of the two sides, but were soon punished for not taking their chances when in the 29th minute, against the run of play, Steeldogs caught Swindon on the counter-attack with Lubomir Korhorn charging down the left side before picking out Hirst who fired past Lyle.

Wildcats now travel to Telford on Wednesday night and they will be hoping to quickly make amends for the defeat.

“It is going to be another tough game,” added Aldridge.

“Having Saturday night off was a tough one because the boys started slow, so we have to make up for it on Wednesday night.

“It is going to be a tough task but I think the boys want to get back on the ice to redeem ourselves.”