Head coach Aaron Nell dismayed as Swindon Wildcats are beaten by Peterborough Phantoms

Despite Max Birbraer’s first-period equaliser and teenager Jordan Kelsall’s goal that put Cats 2-1 up in the second period, Nell’s side slipped to a 4-2 loss on the road at Peterborough Phantoms.

Former Swindon head coach Ryan Aldridge and D-man Matt Selby, who has returned to the club on a two-way deal from Coventry Blaze, featured but the visitors were without the likes of Callum Buglass and chief Nell, who are injured, as well as forward Tomasz Malasinki, who was away on international duty with Poland.

However, the Cats boss believes that his team’s current injury crisis was no excuse for their display in Cambridgeshire.

“We’re playing like a team under pressure and we’re not playing like men,” said Nell.

“For the first five minutes of the first period and the first five minutes of the third period, we were awful and it’s cost us the game.

“We’ve got a lot of injuries and we had no Tomasz Malasinski tonight. We had top guys out of the line-up but that should have taken the pressure off.

“We didn’t work hard enough and that’s not good enough.

“We’re on a bad run of form now and we can go two ways from here – we can go upwards or it can become a sinking ship.

“There are a lot of teams in this league that are in worse situations of us and they’ve done well out of it.

“It’s frustrating that we’re not playing like men and playing hard in certain areas. That’s why we brought Ryan Aldridge in – he’s not played for three years but he plays hard because he’s a man.

“If you look at (netminder) Stevie Lyle, he’s always got traffic in front of him because other teams go in on the net.

“Jordan Kelsall is a 17-year-old lad but he’s scored twice in two games by going in on the net – it’s not rocket science.

“We can’t just score pretty goals all the time. We have to be grittier and play harder.”

The Wildcats coach added: “We’ve got Sheffield and Bracknell next weekend and they’re now must-win games.”