The Swindon Wildcats were unable to build on last weekend’s positive results as they were beaten 4-1 by Basingstoke Bison.

Sadly for the Wildcats, the defeat also means their hopes in the English Premier League Cup were dented as they needed to win this game to secure their semi-final place.

But it wasn’t to be as a first period goal from Aaron Connolly, who was responsible for Aaron Nell’s dislocated shoulder in the home fixture, gave them the lead.

Rene Jarolin and Ciaran Long then pushed home the advantage for the hosts, as they grabbed the second and third goals in the second period, before Stevie Whitfield added a late consolation in the third.

The opening 20 minutes were a cagey affair, both netminders were busy but it would be fair to say that Stevie Lyle was the busiest out of the two.

The Wildcats’ start was far from ideal as the slipped behind in the opening five minutes when Connolly found a way past Lyle to fire his team into the lead.

The Basingstoke Bison scorer latched onto a lay off from his teammate Jarolin before slotting it home with the clock reading 4.57.

Lyle then had to produce some more good saves, especially when Swindon had both Matt Selby and Floyd Taylor serving two minute penalties.

It was a similar story in the second period when the hosts doubled their advantage in the opening exchanges, this time the provider was the scorer as Jarolin capitalised to make it 2-0 in the 26th minute.

Swindon were soon down to three men when Floyd Taylor and Sam Bullas were both serving two minute penalties for  netminder interference and interference.

As Taylor returned to the ice, Bison added a crushing third goal from Long on the power-play,  ten minutes after they added the second.

The rest of the period was played out without too many chances for the Wildcats, who had struggled to create any real chances on goal.

The third period was a frustrating one for Nell’s side as Basingstoke did very well to nullify the game and run down the clock, much to the frustration of the visitors.

However Nell’s troops were able to get on the score sheet eventually when Whitfield made it 3-1 with just under five minutes of the game to play.

After pulling Lyle to try and get back into the game, the Wildcats were punished on the break when Jarolin added his second with 20 seconds to play.