Bees burnt by Wildcats
Bracknell Bees 4 Swindon Wildcats 6
SCOTT SPEARING says his Bees side must use their collapse against Swindon as a warning ahead of this weekend’s play-offs.
Bracknell face London Raiders home and away in the quarter-finals after the regular season ended with defeat to the Wildcats.
Goals from Spearing, Alex Barker, Josh Ealey-Newman and George Norcliffe opened up a 4-0 lead for the hosts in the second period.
Sam Bullas pulled one back before Bracknell collapsed in the third, conceding five times as they lost 6-4 to end the season in defeat.
“We started really, really well,” Spearing told The Wokingham Paper.
“But it’s something we’ve lacked probably since just before Christmas until this time which is just not playing for the full 60 minutes.
“When we’ve got ahead we’ve relaxed too much and let teams back into the game and that was what we basically did on Sunday.
“We just need to stay focussed.
“It goes to show when we play well and we do what we are supposed to be doing and everyone is buying into the same cause, we compete and we dominated Swindon for the first 40 minutes.
“As long as we play for 60 minutes we can beat any team.”
Knowing victory could see Bees move up to fourth and secure a second leg at home this weekend, Bees came flying out of the traps against a Swindon side who were certain to finish third.
Callum Best, Shaun Thompson and Josh Martin all combined well but netminder Matt Smital was equal to the task.
Barker also threatened before the deadlock was eventually broken when Spearing turned in a rare goal.
The one-way traffic continued after the restart. Barker made it 2-0, following up on a Tom Avery shot and EaleyNewman soon made it three with a strike from a tight angle.
Alex Mettam produced a huge double save to preserve his clean sheet and Bees went 4-0 up through man-of-thematch Norcliffe.
Bullas’ goal gave the Cats hope and they stormed back in the third to leave Bracknell stunned.
Edgars Bebris brought the deficit to within two goals with 10 minutes to play, which was plenty of time for Aaron Nell (2) and Bullas to complete the turnaround before Max Birbraer tapped in a late sixth goal.
“We’re really excited for the play-offs now,” said Spearing.
“I’m really looking forward to it.
“It was a bit of a disappointing result on Sunday, but there’s a lot of good things to take from it.”
The first game is at The Hive on Saturday (6pm) before the second leg at Sapphire Ice and Leisure in Romford on Sunday (5.15pm).