Bracknell Bees stun MK Lightning before being hammered by Basingstoke Bison

They had just seen their side hammered 9-2 by arch-rivals Basingstoke Bison, one of the most embarrassing performances in the club's recent history.

It was a result which just didn't make sense, particularly after the team's achievement just 24 hours earlier when Bees incredibly scored twice in the last half-minute to win 4-3 at Milton Keynes Lightning.

Bees are not the strongest side in the National League, yet they are far better than what this unbelievable scoreline would indicate.

Several players had an off night, with the defence being repeatedly punished for mistakes by a club facing their former head coach, Doug Sheppard.

A tough task was made even harder when they conceded a goal to Michal Klejna with just 49 seconds on the clock.

Twelve minutes later it was 2-0 with former Bee Ryan Sutton forcing the puck home after a scramble around the net with Bison on the powerplay.

And Bees were again a man light on the ice when Sutton unleashed a powerful shot into the top left-hand corner.

For a time in the second period, it was three against five, but Bracknell managed to kill off both penalties.

After Klejna had made it it 4-0, Bees gave their suffering fans something to cheer when Vanya Antonov scored a power-play goal in the 29th minute, with Josh Smith and Stuart Mogg getting the assists.

But Klejna restored Bison's four-goal advantage and the Czech import netted his fourth goal of the match after 31 minutes to make it 6-1.

This led to a change of netminder with Danny Milton replacing Adam Goss, who must have been shell-shocked by now.

Milton, however, was unable to prevent his side from shipping three goals for the third successive period with Alex Sampford and Liam Morris both on target before Sutton completed his hat-trick.

Antonov, voted his side's man-of-the-match, scored Bees' second goal by beating former Bracknell netminder Alex Mettam from a tight angle in the 50th minute.

In all, the hosts had 34 shots at goal, just two fewer than Bison.

Bees had been up against their goalie from last season, Dean Skinns, when they defeated MK Lightning by the odd goal in seven on Saturday.

After taking a 30th-minute lead through Robin Kovar, they found themselves trailing 3-1 with the clock showing 45:36.

Roman Malinik reduced the deficit just after the 52nd minute had been reached, but Bees still looked to be heading for defeat when they trailed with the game well into its final minute.

However, with 25 seconds left Malinik made it 3-3, with Zach Milton getting a second successive assist, and six seconds from time Kovar set up the winner for Aidan Doughty.

The match, however, was badly marred by a disappointing lack of discipline from a number of players. In all, MK picked up 86 penalty minutes and Bees 44.

Harry Ferguson, with 31, and Tomas Kana, 25, were the main offenders for the hosts, while Bracknell's Josh Martin received 30.

Czech Kana was handed a game misconduct for roughing after landing a punch on the Bees forward, while Ferguson received a match penalty for a punch at Martin from the bench. Martin was given 22 minutes for incitement and diving shortly before the final buzzer.

Bees fans will be hoping to see a big all-round improvement this coming weekend with home games against table-topping Telford Tigers on Saturday (6.15pm) and Raiders on Sunday (5.30pm).