PLAYER-COACH Aaron Nell blasted his Swindon Wildcats side for “the worst hockey they had played all season” after a home defeat in NIHL South One on Saturday night.

Nell’s comments followed an uncharacteristically poor performance from the Cats at the Link Centre as they went down 4-2 to Peterborough Phantoms, making it two league defeats in a row for the first time this season.

Thomas Rutkis got the cats off to an excellent start as they came out of the locker room fired up and seemingly ready to put the Phantoms to the sword.

Yet, four unanswered goals from the visitors saw frustration grow at the Link Centre as the crowd began to boo refereeing decisions and the players got into needless scuffles.

A late Sam Bullas reply threatened to start a comeback, but Nell said his side deserved nothing from a game in which he felt his big players failed to turn up.

He said: “In the first 10 minutes, we played well and in the last 10 we played well, but the middle 40 was probably the worst we’ve played all year and Peterborough made us pay.

“I don’t think we worked hard enough to make enough chances. Peterborough were very efficient and their power-play was excellent.

“Your big players have got to perform and tonight our big players didn’t do themselves justice. When your best four or five players on paper are your four or five worst forwards, you’re going to struggle.

“If we would have got a point out of tonight, we’d have gone home with balaclavas on, we’d have robbed them.

“It was disappointing. We can’t take anything away from Peterborough, they were excellent and fully deserved to win."

Nell said his side had no excuse for their poor performance and they must show far more determination in tough moments if they are to lift any silverware this season.

“Our big players need to step up and lead the team," said Nell.

"No one is going to feel sorry for us. We’ve got a deep squad, so when you’ve got injuries like we have now, you’ve just to pull through it, especially when you’re at home.

“I don’t think there was enough emotion tonight. We were very flat. Our third line was excellent, but our top two lines were poor.

“It’s about having emotion but putting that in the right areas. We didn’t turn up tonight and we weren’t good enough.

“We’ve got to re-group, and we can’t lose three in a row. Streatham are going to be very fresh so Sunday night is when you’ll see the character of the team.

“We need to regroup tonight, look after ourselves and dig out a big win."