Swindon Wildcats returned back to Spring Cup action with a double defeat against last season’s title rivals the Telford Tigers. At home on Saturday evening the Cats found themselves on the end of a 9-2 beating before heading to Shropshire on the Sunday where they fell defeat by 7 goals to 2, to complete a tough weekend for Aaron Nell and his players.

Saturday saw the Tigers take an early lead through Ross Venus before two goals in quick succession saw them extend that lead to a 0-3 advantage. Late on in the opening period the Tigers got on the scoresheet once more through Scott McKenzie before Toms Rutkis did pull one back for the Cats in the dying seconds of the first. Into the middle period and the Cats were looking to come firing back into the game, but it would be the visitors who continued to extend their lead.

At 22:15 Jonathan Weaver restored the four-goal advantage on the powerplay before Scott McKenzie extended the lead to 5 less than two minutes later. Midway through the period the Tigers made it 1-7 when Jack Watkins found the net at 31:38. As the final period started for the Cats it was a case of trying to win a period to take some momentum into the road game on the Sunday, however despite Balint Pakozdi scoring at 47:37 the Tigers added two late goals first through Ross Venus before Cole Shudra completed the scoring for the evening, and sealed a 9-2 win for the visitors.

A frustrated Aaron Nell then took the team to Telford on the Sunday to try and avenge the result, and despite a much closer and more competitive game the Tigers were able to seal another big win, this time taking the game 7-2.

At 5:03 the hosts opened the scoring through Ross Venus again, this time against the run of play, but the Cats were unable to capitalise on the chances they had on Brad Day and at 11:59 they found themselves 2-0 down thanks to a tip on the powerplay from Jason Silverthorn. As the first period ended the Cats needed to get into the game early in the middle stanza.

However just 46 seconds into the second period, Jason Silverthorn added his second and Telford’s third. The Cats did get the next goal of the game when a fortunate deflection off a Ben Nethersell shot saw the team get back in the contest at 29:59. In the third period Tigers utility player Cole Shudra was ejected from the game on a kicking major and the Wildcats had the perfect opportunity to get back into the game. Jordan Kelsall opened his Spring Cup account to reduce the deficit to one with half of the powerplay still to go, however the turning point of the game saw David Clements break through shorthanded and restore the Tigers two goal advantage.

A couple of minutes later Kieran Brown added a fifth Tigers goal and the momentum was well and truly back with the home side. At 54:13 Scott McKenzie scored their sixth before the final goal of a miserable weekend was scored by Austin Mitchell-King at 58:55.

This coming weekend sees the Wildcats take on the Raiders IHC in a home and away contest, with a 6:30 face-off in Swindon on Saturday night before a trip to Romford on Sunday afternoon. You can get your streaming tickets for the home game by visiting https://swindonwildcats.com/tickets20-21/