SWINDON Wildcats player-coach Aaron Nell feels the 8-3 scoreline didn’t reflect his side’s efforts as their winning streak was halted by Telford Tigers on Sunday night.

Nell’s side travelled to Shropshire on the back of four straight wins but came up against an immovable force in the shape of league-leading Telford, who maintained their unbeaten home record this season.

First period goals from Doug Clarkson and Sam Zajac put the home side in a commanding position at the first break but Tomasz Malasinski netted twice to haul Swindon back level in the second.

The sides were only on level terms briefly before Lubomir Korhon and Jason Silverthorn put Telford back in control of the contest.

Neil Liddiard scored midway through the third period to show a glimmer of hope but Clarkson wrapped up his hat-trick to add to a second goal from Silverthorn and a Matt Davies strike as Swindon were punished chasing the game.

“It’s disappointing but I don’t think it was quite an 8-3 game,” said Nell.

“They’re obviously a very good team and they haven’t lost at home yet and I thought we played pretty well.

“Their top guys were good around the net tonight and they scored some nice goals at key times.

“They got two very nice goals in the first period but even in the first period, we played well and it was an even hockey game.

“I think people were down on themselves (after the first period) and we can’t be down on each other.

“I thought we were right in the game and the first 15 minutes of the second period were probably our best 15 minutes of the year, we were all over them.

"They're big chances they took and we didn't take enough of our big ones.

“The score looks really bad but we pulled the goalie with five minutes to go and it makes it look worse.

“In my eyes, I am sure people will think I am wrong, it wasn’t an 8-3 hockey game, it was a lot closer than that.

“They came through with big goals and that is why they are top of the league.”

Mark Smith missed the last two periods after being taken to hospital and Nell believes his side have dug deep to deal with a long injury list in recent months.

“We were short four D-men tonight and were playing with six players out of our line-up and six important players,” he added.

“The players worked hard tonight and (Telford) executed around the net, where we didn’t.

“In the six games from Christmas, we aimed to win four of them and we did, tonight would have been a bonus but it didn’t come.

"I think it was a good game to get the speed of our game back - the last two were pretty slow games where we slowed down a bit.

"This game was a good hard and fast game for us and I think that will be good for us in the long run.

“We’ll move on and we’ve got a big game (against Peterborough Phantoms) next week now."