SWINDON Wildcats head coach Ryan Aldridge felt his team let themselves down tonight as they failed to execute their game plan in a 3-1 defeat to bottom of the league Bracknell Bees.

Cats struggled to get into a tie that was a very stop-start affair but found themselves a goal to the good when Aaron Nell scored with the team short-handed at the start of the second period.

The lead did not last long however and a brace from Jan Bendik either side of a penalty goal from Matt Towalski sealed the win for the home side.

Aldridge cut a frustrated figure at the end of the game and believes that there was no player in the changing room, except for the ever consistent Stevie Lyle, who could be proud of their efforts.

"We had a tough game last night and the boys looked tired tonight," said Aldridge.

"In key areas we just switched off tonight.

"We need to be better and we are always going to struggle against teams like this but I don't think the boys showed up 100 per cent tonight.

"I think we let down Stevie Lyle tonight and I don't think anyone can look in the mirror and think they player their hardest.

“That is the frustrating thing for me because that is all I ever did as a player, was work hard but what can you do.”

Despite Alex Symonds being finding himself in the sin-bin for a second time early in the second period Nell was able to catch the hosts on the counter-attack and at the second time of asking he fired past Tom Annetts to give the Cats a surprise lead in the 22nd minute.

However Bracknell responded well to going a goal behind and soon found themselves camped in the Swindon half. After several attempts from Bendik, the Slovakian finally found a way past Stevie Lyle.

The home side took the lead in the 33rd minute when a combination of Lyle and Nell prevented Towalski from getting a shot away when he was found one-on-one with the goalie, and calmly put the puck between Lyle’s legs from the resulting penalty.

The contest was put beyond the Cats with five minutes to go when Bendik was found open at the far post to tap home with the visitors finding no answers to their hosts.

“It’s a funny rule because I think we should have had one last night and we should have had one tonight right before that but because we battled and got the shot away they don’t give a penalty shot,” ,” added Aldridge when asked his opinion on the penalty.

“Because he didn’t get the puck away he gets a penalty shot and I think that is a funny rule.

“I think some of the officiating decision weren’t up to scratch, on both ways. I am not going to say it was biased to us but I think it was not the best tonight.

“It’s not good for either team, but especially for us. We are a team that likes to play offensive hockey and with flow and stop start just breaks the flow for us.

“We’ll snap a little bit tonight and re-group in the week and focus on next weekend.”