SWINDON Wildcats roared back to winning ways this evening with a landslide victory on the road at English Premier League basement boys Manchester Phoenix.

Aaron Nell's side were crushed 8-2 at home by leaders Telford Tigers on Saturday night but bounced straight back against a struggling Phoenix side at Silver Blades ice rink in Widnes.

The Cats got off to a nightmare start, however, falling behind inside 90 seconds from the first meaningful shot in anger from either side. Myles Dacres drove up the right and unleashed a powerful effort that beat Michael Crisp at his near post.

Swindon were quick to respond and laid siege to the Phoenix goal, with Jonas Hoog and Tomasz Malasinski both denied by netminder Stephen Fone.

The pressure soon paid dividends and captain Jan Kostal was able to haul Swindon level, with the strike opening the floodgates as three goals were scored in the space of four minutes midway through the period.

Floyd Taylor and Sam Bullas also hit the target and although the goals briefly dried up, Toms Rutkis pushed the visitors further clear a minute before the first buzzer.

There was no let up as the second period got under way and Phoenix's plight deepened when Luke Boothroyd was sent to the penalty box, allowing Malasinski to net Swindon's fifth goal on the powerplay within a minute of the restart.

The goals continued to flow and Taylor was the first Swindon player to double his tally, doing so with a thunderbolt of a strike from distance.

New import signing Robin Kovar then got his second goal in Swindon colours after signing for the club in midweek before Taylor completed his hat-trick with a close-range finish to make the lead 8-1 as the players headed back to the locker rooms again.

To their credit, Phoenix refused to roll over and were the first to strike in the final period as Crisp was again beaten low down at his near post, this time by Ben Wood.

Swindon were soon back in their stride, though, with captain Kostal bagging his second of the day, capitalising while Craig Thurston was in the penalty box.

Again, that kicked off a flurry of goals, with both Michael Stratford and Rutkis also hitting the back of the net in the space of two minutes.

Swindon still had plenty of defensive work to do and they could not prevent Dacres getting his second of the match in the closing stages, although it did little to affect the overall outcome.