THE Swindon Wildcats slipped to a third successive loss in the English Premier League as they were beaten 3-0 at the Telford Tigers this evening.

Ryan Aldridge’s men, who also lost at the Link Centre to the Peterborough Phantoms yesterday, were put under constant pressure from the first buzzer and after their stern resistance was finally broken in the closing moments of the first period, Swindon were always left with a mountain to climb.

The hosts carved out a chance with just seconds on the clock, with Peter Szabo getting on the end of a smart pass across the face of goal but failing to turn the puck home.

Despite a frantic, end-to-end opening to the clash the two sides largely cancelled each other out, up until the Tigers’ Jason Silverthorn stung the palms of Lyle with a powerful slapshot.

Aaron Nell drew a save from the Telford netminder midway through the first period before a well-worked move saw Tomasz Malasinksi smartly set-up as the puck was chopped back from behind the home goal but the Swindon man’s effort was well-saved.

After Kenton Smith and Rick Plant were both sin-binned for an impromptu dust-up in front of the Swindon goal, the home side began to pepper the Wildcats goal, with Szabo’s inventive strike sliding narrowly wide of the mark off the foot of Lyle before Joe Miller cracked an effort onto the inside of the visitors’ post.

Another well-worked Tigers attack saw Lyle save from Szabo once again before the hosts went ahead shortly before the end of the first period, with Maxim Birbraer finding some space before cracking home a scorching effort, which gave netminder Lyle no chance.

Telford continued to pile on the pressure following the restart but despite Malasinski coming not too far away from levelling up the scores, the hosts made it 2-0 midway through the period as a five-on-four powerplay, with Sam Bullas in the sin-bin, saw a Miller effort take a wicked deflection and creep in at the near post.

Lyle stood up well to save from Miller after the Tigers man was played in on goal whilst at the other end, Ollie Betteridge broke free on goal but was denied by an excellent Thomas Murdy save.

The hosts went close to netting a third early in the final period when Birbraer worked his way down the right before setting up Daniel Davies but his effort whizzed past the post.

And just moments later, Telford did net a third as, after seeing his initial shot saved by Lyle, Scott McKenzie received the puck at the far post and turned home to increase his side’s lead.

The Tigers continued to bear their teeth, with Jonathan Weaver pinging a strike onto the post from range whilst McKenzie tested the Swindon netminder once more as the third period ran its course.

There was however time for Nathan Salem to almost catch out Lyle with an inventive effort hit back from between his own legs as Telford condemned the Wildcats to a third defeat in a row.