SWINDON Wildcats suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time this season as they were beaten 5-2 by Basingstoke Bison at the Link Centre.

As expected, the game got off to a flying start as the Cats looked to pounce on Bison in the opening exchanges.

Edgars Bebris was the man to break the deadlock for the Wildcats as he poked the puck home past David Skinns.

The goal scorer couldn't have asked for more in terms of the pass he got from stand-in captain, Stevie Whitfield as he just slid the puck into a dangerous area, handing his teammate a simple finish in the 10th minute.

Daniel Scott bursts into the game and drops gloves against Floyd Taylor, but Taylor took the visitor to task end ended up flooring the D-man in the 17th minute in what was a competitive opening period.

The visitors pulled level in the 18th minute through Roman Malinik who tucked home at the back post to make it 1-1 at the interval.

The second instalment was something of a disaster for the Wildcats as they shipped three goals to Bison.

The first was a scruffy effort from Joshua Smith in the 23rd minute, before Daniel Davies made it two three minutes later.

Ivan Antonov got a telling fourth for the away side when he capped off a sweeping move to hand Bison the initiative going into the third period, as they led 4-1.

Aaron Nell’s troops huffed and puffed throughout the period, but failed to fashion any real clear-cut chances on goal.

Chris Jones, who had been relatively quiet, was the man to cut the Bison advantage when he popped up with Swindon’s second goal of the evening, timed at 44:35.

After pulling netminder Renny Marr, the away side sealed the win when Tomas Karpov was able to make the most of the gaping net with 58 seconds to play.