SWINDON Wildcats’ dream of a place in the Challenge Cup final went up in smoke as they crashed to an emphatic 10-5 defeat away at Manchester Phoenix tonight.

Ryan Aldridge’s side headed north full of a hope after a 3-3 draw in the semi-final first leg at the Link Centre a fortnight ago but they were ruthlessly put to the sword at the Altrincham Ice Dome.

James Archer led the assault for the home side, netting five times on the night, and such was Manchester’s dominance that they raced into a 6-0 lead before Cats made any inroads on the scoreboard.

Although Swindon proudly stuck to their task in the final half-hour to ensure they left with some respectability, the damage was already done.

After a cagey opening it took the sin-binning of Swindon’s Tomas Kana midway through the first period for the deadlock to be broken. The home side were quick to capitalise and got themselves in front courtesy of Archer’s powerful strike.

The goal galvanised Phoenix and they held the upper hand right through to the first buzzer, doubling their lead with five minutes left on the clock when James Graham skated nonchalantly forward before firing past Cats keeper Stevie Lyle.

Cats needed a response in the second period but that failed to happen and they were completely outclassed.

Phoenix had almost all the play from the off and Cats were simply cut apart at the back as Archer had the simple task of finishing off a one-yard tap-in to make it 3-0.

Swindon began to flood forward in search of a way back into the match but that left them short at the back and Archer capitalised to complete his hat-trick.

Michal Psurny then got in on the act to bag the hosts’ fifth goal – and third in the space of three minutes – before Archer was on target again.

Kana then found the net to get Swindon on the scoreboard, although that was swiftly cancelled out by Shaun Thompson’s strike.

Adam Harding then pulled another goal back for the visitors but they still had a mountain to climb in the shape of a five-goal deficit heading into the final period.

Swindon were able to earn some respectability in the final 20 minutes as that period ended 3-3.

Jonas Hoog, Kana and Shane Moore were all on target for Cats, cancelling out efforts from Manchester trio Archer, Adam Walker and Robin Kovar but it did little to gloss over what was a night to forget for Swindon.