AARON Nell lamented the errors that he felt contributed to the Swindon Wildcats’ failure to halt the Hull Pirates’ 100 per cent start to the new season.

The Wildcats travelled to East Yorkshire for their second away assignment of the 2016-17 campaign but despite producing a generally spirited display, were undone 4-2 at the Hull Ice Arena.

Head coach Nell was frustrated to see his team so ruthlessly punished for making mistakes on Sunday evening and believes that his players must ‘buck their ideas up’ as soon as possible.

“We played well tonight but we’re making stupid mistakes at stupid times and we’re getting punished for it,” said the Cats chief.

“We played a pretty game tonight but we’re making mistakes in bad areas of the ice and at bad times again, and we’re getting punished.

“We need to buck our ideas up because we’re putting pressure on ourselves.

“On Saturday, we’re playing what looks like the best team in the league (Telford Tigers), who are flying, and we have to be ready to play Saturday night or it will get embarrassing.

“We did a lot of good things but we’re making stupid mistakes at stupid times and we’re getting punished.

“We shouldn’t be making the errors. There are some experienced players making the errors and we can’t be doing it.

“It was a good hockey game tonight but our mistakes got punished – theirs didn’t.

“That’s hockey. Hockey’s not a game of doing well, hockey’s a game of mistakes; we need to cut them out at important times in games.”

Nell also felt that his team’s shortcomings can’t be blamed on early-season rustiness.

The Wildcats coach added: “It’s no excuse to say it’s early in the season. Hull have the ground running – they’ve won four in a row.

“We were a lot better than we were last Sunday (a 6-1 loss at the Peterborough Phantoms) but our mistakes are getting punished.

“We had a lot of chances tonight and we didn’t put them away. We’ve got to put them away.

“If we’re not going to put away those chances, we’re not going to win and their goalie didn’t save them tonight – we hit him.

“We had a few breakaways and didn’t score, and that’s the difference in the game.”