SWINDON Wildcats suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time since the end of October as they fell to a 5-3 defeat at the hands of Telford Tigers.

The league leaders, who have found Swindon to be their bogey side so far this season, came with a clear game plan and had Swindon on the ropes early with two goals in the first period from Nathan Salem and Joe Miller.

Aaron Nell and Tomasz Malasinski clawed the game back level for the Cats but the big spending visitors proved too much for the hosts when  Jason Silverthorn and Blahoslav Novak looked to have completed the win for the away side, before a late strike from Toms Rutkis set up a tense finish.

Lyle was  pulled from the goal to pile the pressure on in the final minute but it was Maxim Birbraer who took advantage of the empty net to complete the scoring.

Swindon were boosted with the arrival of new defensive signing Sam Oakford to the starting line-up, having joined from Elite League side Nottingham Panthers.

The game erupted into life after what was quite a quiet opening three minutes of the contest.

After penalties against Shane Moore and Nathan Salem it was the visitors who opened the scoring as Zajac caught Stevie Lyle unsighted to fire past his left hand from the blue line.

It took just 21 seconds before the Tigers doubled their lead leaving their hosts looking very shell-shocked.

With confusion over whether Tomasz Malasinski had committed and offence and a Telford player prone on the ice, Joe Miller took advantage of the misunderstanding to fire past Lyle.

The first period continued to be a tetchy affair with a lot of off the puck incidents and was a stop-start affair with several players finding their way into the sin-bin, a tactic Telford had clearly had in their mind to disrupt the play of their hosts.

A much needed team talk from head coach Ryan Aldridge appeared to have the desired effect in the second period as Swindon came out and looked a lot more composed.

Nell gave the Cats a way back into the match when he was able to fire the puck past Sam Gospel in the Telford goal, replacing Thomas Murdy for the evening, from the tightest of angles on the right hand side.

Lyle was in fine form at the other end scuppering several Telford attacks before Malasinski fired the hosts back level.

It was a fine piece of individual skill from the Pole as he came from behind the net and somehow found the smallest of spaces between Gospel and the post to fire the puck home in the 39th minute.

However Swindon were unable to keep things level going into the break.

With Stevie Whitfield in the bin for tripping and a misconduct penalty, Jason Silverthorn was able to take advantage of the extra man as he fired the visitors back into the lead with just 13 seconds of the period remaining.

Telford restored a two goal advantage midway through the second period when Blahoslav Novak fired home for the visitors in the 47th minute.

GB under 20 player Rutkis set up a grand stand finish, as he scored a fine solo goal, but with Lyle pulled from the goal Bribraer was able to break and slide the puck into an empty net.