SWINDON Wildcats’ play-off hopes hang by a thread after they were beaten 6-4 by Milton Keynes Lightning at the Link Centre last night.

Player-coach Aaron Nell was left frustrated by the result, which leaves his side needing to win both their remaining Group B games and hope that Basingstoke Bison slip up in order to secure a place in Coventry for the finals weekend.

Swindon took the all-important lead after 10 minutes through import Robin Kovar but MK Lightning were back on level terms five minutes later through Leigh Jamieson’s power play goal.

Milton Keynes cranked up the pressure in the second period and Swindon had no response as Jordan Cownie netted twice either side of an Anti Holli goal to put the visitors in the driving seat.

Swindon kept fighting until the final buzzer, with Thomasz Malasinki, Neil Liddiard and Stevie Whitfield all scoring in the final period, but a Blaz Emersic brace ensured Lightning were always on top.

“It’s frustrating and it obviously wasn’t the plan,” said Nell.

“We put ourselves in a very tough spot and it’s not finished but the odds of us going through now are very short.

“We have just got to keep on fighting.

“I thought we played a pretty good hockey game, except for five minutes.

“The top teams, they don’t shut off like we do in certain spots and you could see, they scored that second goal and we went down and into our shells and we can’t do that.

“Our first period, we played really well.

“They had a bit of a breakdown on the penalty kill and they scored but I was very happy with the first period.

“When we worked and played hard, we had success, but again for five, six, seven minutes in the second, we completely switched off and went down on ourselves and I don’t understand why people would do that.

“We came back well and had a big goal at the start of the third and I thought it was a very suspect too many men call and they scored just on the power play and killed the game off.”

Swindon now travel to Hull Pirates on Saturday knowing nothing short of a win will do to keep their play-off hopes alive, before hosting Basingstoke Bison at the Link Centre on Sunday, which could end up being a decider for second place in the group.

“We have just got to come on Saturday now and take it a game at a time,” added Nell.

“Hopefully Milton Keynes can do us a favour on Saturday night.”