Swindon Wildcats 3 Telford Tigers 1 - match report

Tom Watkins' men delivered an impressive 53 shots on Swindon netminder Stevie Lyle, as they recovered from a poor start to dominate proceedings.

But with the hosts having opened an early two-goal lead, Telford were unable to deliver the killer blow – despite outshooting the Wildcats by almost three-to-one.

Head coach Tom Watkins eventually pulled netminder Sam Gospel in the closing moments, as he looked for an "ugly goal" to close the deficit.

Watkins said: "I thought we had some good quality opportunities tonight. It was important that we got pucks in, as they're a team who play tight in front of the net.

"But Stevie Lyle sucks in a lot of pucks, and we tried everything on face-off plays and short-sided plays to get that bit of bounce.

"It was going to be an ugly goal that would have got us in. It was a tough loss and makes Sunday's game against Peterborough even more important."

Swindon took the lead with two goals in the first period, despite a hefty opening strike rate from the Tigers.

And Phil Hill missed out on the chance to halve that deficit, when Lyle saved his penalty shot in the first minute of the middle session.

The hosts extended their lead against the run of play five minutes later, before Jason Silverthorn opened his side's scoring with a fine deflected goal.

That strike, on the verge of the second interval, led to a dominant final period from Telford – although they were ultimately unable to beat Lyle.

Watkins added: "I was really disappointed with the result. We had a bad start, but played well and dominated the game for two periods.

"The guys threw everything at Swindon and this isn't a place where you want to be coming from behind, especially after giving away a two-goal start.

"It was a hard ask for us at that point, but for two periods we dominated the game.

"Defensively we played well tonight, but the difference is that they punished our mistakes, whereas we didn't punish theirs."

The Tigers' game at home to Peterborough Phantoms tonight at Telford Ice Rink, faces off at 6pm. For tickets, go to www.tigershockeyuk.com