SWINDON Wildcats head coach Aaron Nell was left to rue an ineffective power-play game as his side’s hopes of a fourth straight win in the English Premier League went up in smoke last night during a 4-1 defeat on the road at Guildford Flames.

The Cats got to play 10 of the opening 40 minutes of the contest at the Spectrum with a numerical advantage due to a spate of Guildford penalties but they could not make it pay on the scoreboard and found themselves 2-0 in arrears.

Danny Meyers broke the deadlock for the hosts in the first period despite them being short-handed at the time before Tom Duggan doubled the advantage in the second.

Tomasz Malasinski’s strike early in the final period gave Swindon a lifeline but further Flames efforts from Jeremy Lundin and Ben Campbell finally burned the Cats for good before the final buzzer sounded.

“Our power-play was poor tonight, we were the opposite of last week,” said Nell.

“We got back into the game well at the start of the third period but then we had our worst five minutes of the whole game and those goals were coming – Stevie Lyle already had to make five, six or seven huge saves.

“We didn’t deserve anything out of the game. It wasn’t the worst game we’ve ever played but we got back into it and that’s where we need to consolidate for five minutes but we didn’t – we were the opposite. Stevie was keeping us in there but they eventually scored.

“There’s not much to say, really, it was a tough game. Our power-play has been good for most of the year so we are going to have off-nights. Tonight it was poor and that was the difference.”

Nell was particularly frustrated that the Cats were unable to carry on their free-scoring form of the previous night where they romped to an emphatic 7-0 success over Bracknell Bees at the Link Centre.

With just three EPL fixtures now remaining in the regular season before the end-of-season play-offs, the Cats coach has already set his sights on a return to top form back on home ice next Saturday when his side host Hull Pirates.

“It’s frustrating that we couldn’t follow up what we did last night but this is a very tough building to come to,” said Nell.

“Guildford lost last night so they are going to come extra hard and it was a tough game. We were in the game when we scored but then we switched off.

“Although it is one defeat on the back of a good run, you are never happy with a loss and we have got to learn from it.

“We have got to bounce back, we have got a big game on Saturday.”