ALUN Rossiter slammed his Swindon Robins side’s performance as they failed to get their Elite League play-off bid over the line at the Belle Vue Aces this evening.

The Aces had already sealed top spot in the Elite League table and their place in the end-of-season shake-up had long been secured but the Robins arrived in Manchester requiring just a losing point to rubber-stamp a top-four berth.

However, Belle Vue weren’t in a charitable mood and despite Rohan Tungate’s scorching haul of 15+1 points, Rossiter’s charges found themselves on the wrong end of a 52-40 scoreline and headed back to Wiltshire with nothing to show for their efforts.

Their destiny now hinges on Friday night’s trip to the fifth-placed Lakeside Hammers, which will be a straight shoot-out for the final play-off position.

Abbey Stadium chief Rossiter thought his team could have produced so much more against Belle Vue and offered no excuses for Swindon’s failure to significantly trouble Belle Vue.

“We just weren’t good enough – simple as that,” said the Robins boss.

“We were carrying too many passengers; five points from the reserves (Charles Wright and Stefan Nielsen) and 15 from theirs.

"Doyley (Jason Doyle) was unfortunate. He blew his best bike up in his third ride and his other bike went, so that didn’t help.

“Nick (Morris) and Josh (Grajcoznek) struggled and that wasn’t what you expect from them.

“Rohan and Justin (Sedgmen) did well but we can’t carry too many passengers and we got what we deserved.

“There are no excuses. We just weren’t good enough.”