SWINDON Wildcats player-coach Aaron Nell was left cursing the fine margins that contributed to his team being edged 4-3 by the Sheffield Steeldogs tonight.

After dispatching the Manchester Phoenix at the Link Centre on Saturday, Cats produced another encouraging display in south Yorkshire but their plan narrowly failed to come together as two quickfire third period goals killed off their chances of returning to Swindon with anything to show for their efforts.

Nell was buoyed by his team’s efforts and reckons that the Wildcats are back in fine fettle following their post-Christmas slump but was left to reflect on a night where his team’s errors were emphatically punished.

“I thought we played well tonight,” said the Cats chief.

“The game kind of went how we wanted it to until the last seven minutes and we just made a couple of soft plays that cost us in the end.

“They pounced on the mistakes we made and it was unfortunate.

“We worked hard tonight. We’ve progressed. We were a lot better than we were last weekend and that’s a good sign.

“It was just little mistakes in the last minutes of periods and the goal at the end of the second was a killer and their third goal was a killer too.

“The game went to plan. We wanted to be tight in the first and then try and get the lead and go into the game like that.

“We got a lead and we were in a good spot. You know what, we played hard all night and it was just one of those where they pounced on our mistakes and they got the two points.”

Nell added: “It’s tough and we’ve got to know who we’re on the ice against – their top imports are very good players and they are very fast. You’re not catching them and they’re always looking for that turnover to go.

“We have to look out for that and it’s something that we’ll learn and we’ll get better from it.

“We probably made loads of mistakes but they capitalised on them and took advantage of them and fair play to them.

“We were good tonight but it’s tough to take a loss like that when you do play well.”

The two teams were locked in a stirring stalemate right up until midway through the second period, when Nell finished off a flowing counter-attack.

But the hosts’ Tom Squires and Arnoldas Bosas struck to turn the scoreline on its head heading into the third.

The visitors turned the screw in the final period and their efforts were rewarded as Carlo Finucci tied things up but the Steeldogs caught their opponents with their paws in the cookie jar and they eked out a 4-2 lead as Squires’ drive cannoned into the net off Matt Selby before Cole Shudra also netted.

Jonas Hoog’s thunderbolt set up a tense final few minutes but Cats were left wondering what might have been as time ran out.