STEVIE Lyle was left to rue Guildford Flames’ untimely opening goal as the Swindon Wildcats were scorched 6-0 on the road this evening.

The Cats had the better of the opening period but fell behind with little more than two minutes left on the clock and that had a profound effect on their performance for the rest of the night.

Swindon were then stung by a red-hot Flames display in the second period as the home turned the screw in ruthless fashion at the Spectrum, netting four goals without reply to set up a comprehensive victory.

The defeat continues Swindon’s inconsistent start to the new English Premier League season as they have now won once and lost once in each of the opening three weekends of the campaign.

“The first period went to plan but they scored a late goal and unfortunately that knocked us back a little bit,” said Lyle.

“We tried to stay positive but they had a couple of chances which they ended up scoring from and we went into a bit of a panic. The gameplan worked up to a certain point but after that we kept getting caught out of position.

“I thought that first period was our best period of the season. We were very solid and in control of everything.

“A couple of bounces went their way and they managed to capitalise on it and it’s just a shame we couldn’t capitalise on ours. It was one of those nights, unfortunately.

“They are a well-organised quality team so when you do give up a couple of decent chances they capitalise on it.

“Their netminder Gregg Rockman played well but that’s going to happen, it’s their home ice.

“He didn’t play on Saturday night so he was nice and fresh. That’s no excuse, we had a couple of chances but didn’t find the back of the net.”

The Cats are back in action on Wednesday when Milton Keynes Lightning travel to the Link Centre and Lyle is keen to see a response from his side.

“Wednesday is a different team, a different game and a different day,” he said.

“This is another game to learn from and go over things. I think we will be a bit more aggressive as we are at home and hopefully that scoreline will reflect in our game.”