SWINDON Wildcats played three games in four days last week and the busy schedule eventually took its toll, writes Scott Gummerson.

Having extended their winning sequence to four with the 5-1 away victory at Bracknell Bees on Thursday night, the Wildcats suffered a double defeat over the wekend at the hands of Basingstoke (2-4) and Peterborough (7-3).

The Bracknell game was a fairly routine fixture for the Wildcats.

They drew first blood late in the first period through Ryan Aldridge and two minutes after the opening of the second period, forward James Knight added a second.

The Cats then really found their game with three goals coming in in the space of 20 minutes from import Jonas Höög, Knight and Jamie Hayes.

Despite conceding a goal late in the third period, Swindon had done enough to earn themselves two points.

On Saturday, the Wildcats took to the home ice against the Basingstoke Bison in a tough, physical fixture.

The Bisons’ Ollie Bronniman put his side 2-0 up in the first period and it was not until the third session that the scoreline changed.

Good work around the net by Knight led to captain Lee Richardson tapping home his side’s first goal. Goals were then exchanged between Basingstoke’s Mindaugas Kieras and Wildcat import Josef Liska to leave the score at 2-3.

The momentum was to swing to the Bison again with a Callum Best effort to close out a 4-2 win.

On Sunday, it was clear that the run of fixtures had affected the Wildcats and they soon found themselves 3-0 down to the Peterborough Phantoms by the end of the first period.

The Phantoms put away another goal early in the second session before Swindon stopped the rot via Egidijus Bauba.

However, two further goals for the home side made it 6-1.

The Wildcats did their best in the third period, getting goals from Richardson and Bullas, before the Phantoms added their seventh and final strike.

Swindon added a late consolation goal to leave the scores at 7-3 and they remain in the play-off places at seventh position in the league.

This weekend they face home and away matches with Slough Jets.