SWINDON Wildcats head coach Ryan Aldridge has taken the blame for a 4-2 away defeat at Peterborough Phantoms that left a ‘bitter taste’ in his mouth.

Swindon got off to a disastrous start conceding three goals in the first period and found themselves four down at the start of the second half, a deficit they could never get back.

Despite two second period goals from Lee Richardson and Tomasz Malasinski, Cats could not force a goal in the final period as they suffered only their second defeat of the season on the road.

“I’ve got to take a bit of the blame for that, I probably played the wrong system,” said Aldridge.

“We changed after the first period and seemed to settle in a little bit more but in the first period they always kill us and I wanted to come out and match their tempo and it probably back-fried on me.

“They came out flying and they were playing the same sort of style we wanted to play but they were doing better.

“When you go four goals down in this building and with their new goalie it is always going to be a tough task to bring it back.

“We just tried to be a little bit aggressive and be hard, we have been playing a little bit different on the road and I probably should have stuck with that.

“I thought the last two periods we were the better team.

“When we pulled the goalie we had a lot of chances and he made a lot of good saves so we have to take the positives out of that but we have to remember the negatives next time we go on the road.

Swindon fell a goal behind after nine minutes, just moments after Alex Symonds was sent to the sin bin for hooking, when Luke Ferrara who fired past Stevie Lyle from close range.

Swindon appeared to have calmed the early storm from the Phantoms but it was a sense of déjà vu as the visitors were again punished when the hosts had a power play.

This time it was Kenton Smith who was off the ice for tripping and, straight from the penalty, the puck fell to Slava Koulikov who slid across the face of the Swindon goal and scored in the opposite corner.

Swindon had barely caught their breath when the Phantoms added insult to injury when, just 27 seconds after the restart, Will Weldon’s shot proved too hot to handle for Lyle and the puck trickled over the line.

There was no let up after the break as Peterborough came out of the locker rooms picking up where they left off and after just one minute further extended their lead through Milan Baranyk.

However, Wildcats were quick to respond after Richardson put the puck between the legs of Janis Auzins within a minute.

A Wildcat comeback looked on when Malasinski scored his fourth goal in his last two matches on the road.

Nell won the puck behind Auzins’ goal and pulled the back to Malasinski, who fired hard home into the roof of the net.

But it wasn’t to be for the visitors who failed to create any clear cut chances in the final period, even when Lyle was brought off in place of an extra out-field skater.

Swindon do not have to wait long to exact their revenge as they host Peterborough at the Link Centre next Saturday before again travelling to Telford.

“But it leaves a bitter taste in your mouth, so it is something to think about all week and you go out and get your own back on Saturday night,” the Cats chief said.