AARON Nell thought that his Swindon Wildcats sailed grossly off course as they were dispatched by Hull Pirates tonight.

In a breathless encounter in East Yorkshire, the Wildcats did twice come from behind to force overtime and secure a losing point but after Swindon succumbed to a power play winner, Nell pulled few punches in his assessment of his team’s display.

Player-coach Nell was left perturbed as the Wildcats were beaten 5-4 by the English Premier League’s basement boys and thought that his hand was forced as he was left with little option to replace young netminder Jordan Hedley with veteran Stevie Lyle following a dismal first period.

Nell also had little sympathy for the late heartbreak suffered by his players as the Pirates’ Tommi Laine fired in the decisive ninth goal of the night in overtime.

“I don’t think it was tough. I think we were lucky to be where we were - we just weren’t good enough,” said the Wildcats chief.

“Maybe we thought we were just going to turn up and beat the Hull Pirates but they work hard and this is a tough building to come to. It’s a long trip, they work hard, and we didn’t match it, and it’s disappointing because we’ve got a good thing going here and we just weren’t up for it.

“The first period was our worst period of the year and it wasn’t good enough.

“We were flat. I shouldn’t have to put Stevie Lyle in goal against Hull Pirates. We left Jordan out to dry and I feel sorry for Jordan because we left him out to dry and it’s not good enough.

“It comes from the start – the warm-up was flat and it was just flat, flat, flat, and it’s not good enough.

“If we want to be a good team in this league, we have to learn win these types of games and the game last Sunday (a 4-3 loss at Bracknell Bees) because they’re two games that we should have won and we’d be in a different spot right now.

“It was a bit glum, it was a bit dead and that’s not good enough.”

The Wildcats struggled to get out of the blocks in the first period and were left trailing 2-0 at the first break of the night following goals from Jordan Fisher and Warren Tait.

Meanwhile, Hull goalie Martins Raitums was an inspired presence in the home goal throughout and it took a power play strike from skipper Jan Kostal to finally beat the Latvian stopper before Nell bundled home to level things up at 2-2.

The Pirates quickly plunged the Wildcats back into choppy waters as a sublime move ended with Pasi Salonen teeing up Josh Gent for a tap-in and in the final period, Solonen made it 4-2.

But Tomasz Malasinski got the final touch on Matt Selby’s drive to reduce the deficit and Jonas Hoog cracked two attempts at the impressive Raitums before finally notching to make it 4-4.

As the drama extended to the additional period, the Wildcats luck during opposition power plays finally ran out as, after Neil Liddiard was penalised for a trip, Laine lashed home to hand the Pirates only their fourth win of the season, leaving Nell with plenty to ponder.