The Swindon Wildcats suffered double defeat at the hands of Milton Keynes Lightning in the EPL at the weekend.

A 6-1 home mauling on Saturday was followed by a much-improved 2-1 defeat on away ice yesterday, as the Cats continue to look a better side on their travels.

Lee Cowmeadow had missed the first of the two encounters but returned yesterday with Mike Hollands given a rest.

Lightning netted once in each of the first two periods, but the Cats nearly clawed their way back into it in the final session, with Ciaran Long firing home a crisp low strike after 56 minutes from Matty Davies and Tomas Janek.

Erik Bochna had missed an open net as the Cats pressed late on, but Milton Keynes held on to complete a weekend double.

A day earlier, Cats' grim home form continued with a fourth defeat in five matches at the Link.

Swindon were a step behind the visitors in every aspect of the game, their import players were totally outshone.

Assistant captain Cowmeadow was unable to ice because of back spasms, but travelled from his Cardiff home to watch the game. He saw his team comprehensively beaten by the best side seen at the Link Centre so far this season.

Lightning struck first at 4.55 with Marek Hornak sitting a tripping penalty, and their slick powerplay movement left Ales Perez with a relatively easy tap-in for the opening goal.

At 8.24, with two Swindon defencemen backing off the advancing Perez and Chris McEwen, it was MK player-coach Nick Poole who chased up ice fastest and made it two with a crisp low shot past Nathan Craze.

The third goal was a peach with Greg Randall skating out of defence and sending a precise long diagonal pass to Ross Bowers who fired home from an angle and the Cats trailed 3-0.

This was familiar territory in recent home games. Once again the Cats had come out of the traps flat and the period shots on goal told the story - Lightning had eleven shots on target, the Cats a mere five.

Again the Cats were chasing the game, but Milton Keynes were a vastly superior side to Chelmsford seven days earlier.

Bochna had several shooting chances, and might have reasonably expected a penalty shot when he was upended while clear on goal, but could not get the puck past veteran netminder Barry Hollyhead.

A Lightning powerplay goal from Gary Clarke at 36.11 was followed ninety seconds later by another easy tap-in snapped up by Adam Carr with the Cats' defence fully stretched to lead 5-0.

Coach Peter Russell put on netminder Joe White in place of Craze for the third period, but he was beaten by a clever dummy from Clarke at 41.07.

Scant consolation for the Cats was a powerplay goal from Bochna at 46.17, against a side that had conceded only four goals all season, and none in the previous weekends games.