Swindon Wildcat Matthew Davies blasted in a hat-trick and then fired a warning to his side's rivals after a convincing first win of the campaign.

The 17-year-old was lethal in front of goal as Swindon crushed the Bracknell Bees 8-1 on their own patch in the second game of their EPL Cup bid.

It came just a week after losing to the same opponents 5-4 at the Link, and the Bees were almost untouchable at home last season.

Delighted Davies said: "I got the trick hat-trick so that was nice from a personal point of view.

"It was always going to take a little while to gel but tonight it just all came together.

"I think it helped that we didn't play on the Saturday so we were all very fresh.

"We just clicked as a team. It was very important to get that first win and we'll be full of confidence after that.

"It's looking very promising for us now."

Marek Hornak had opened the scoring inside of a minute from an Erik Bochna pass.

Lee Richardson doubled the lead before the end of the first period, with centre Davies turning provider.

Bees got off the mark in the second period, but two powerplay goals from Davies sandwiched an Adam Brittle goal to make it 5-1 going into the final period - Jan Vrtik, Ciaran Long and Tomas Janak grabbing assists.

A further three goals followed, with Davies completing his treble via Michael Farn.

Bochna then got off the mark with an unassisted seventh and Richardson completed the scoring with his second, created by Lee Cowmeadow.

Cats scorers: Davies 3+1, Richardson 2+0, Bochna 1+1, Hornak 1+0 Brittle 1+0, Long 0+1, Janak 0+1, Vrtik 0+1, Farn 0+1, Cowmeadow 0+1.

Period scores: 0-2, 1-3, 0-3.

Penalty minutes: Bracknell 47, Swindon 14.

Shots on goal: On Bracknell 34, on Swindon 30.