INJURY-HIT Bracknell Bees had a weekend to forget, slumping to two heavy defeats, writes Dave Wright.

They crashed 8-2 at Basingstoke last Saturday and then lost 6-3 to Hull Pirates on Sunday when they let the lead slip three times before shipping three late goals, two of them after netminder Danny Milton had been withdrawn.

As a result, Bees drop back to last-but-one in the league standings with Raiders moving above them ahead of their clash at Romford this coming Saturday (5.15pm).

Bees were left with just three recognised defenders against Hull – Luke Jackson, Ed Knaggs and Harvey Stead. They were also missing goalie Adam Goss, although Danny Milton proved a capable replacement.

Goss must have felt exhausted after the match at Basingstoke, where he faced 53 shots with the defensive line in front of him being continually torn apart by Bison. So to concede just eight goals was a creditable achievement.

Bees trailed 2-0 at the first interval and 3-1 at the next before their tiring side conceded five more in the final 17 minutes.

Bees' two consolation goals came from Zach Milton, who was voted his side's man-of-the-match, in the 29th minute and Aidan Doughty in the 58th.

The frustration in the camp boiled over in the 47th minute when Josh Ealey-Newman lost his cool and a series of misdemeanours led to him accumulating a total of 39 penalty minutes plus a match ban, ruling the forward out of Sunday's game.

Against Hull, Bees made a flying start with Roman Malinik giving them the lead inside three minutes with a superb run and finish.

Pirates equalised through Jason Hewitt just before the 10-minute mark, but Bees started the second period like they had the first with an early goal, this time from Josh Martin.

A goal on the power-play from Jon Kirk made it 2-2 in the 31st minute, only for Caly Robertson to restore the hosts' lead three minutes later.

Once again, Bracknell were unable to stay ahead, with James Archer equalising on 40 minutes at a time when they were short-handed.

There were times when they held the advantage of five-on-three and five-on-four, but were still unable to get in any shots on target – and were made to pay with Bobby Chamberlain giving Hull the lead for the first time with five minutes remaining.

When the clocked ticked down to 1.41, Bees withdrew Danny Milton, but it took just 16 seconds for Hewitt to plant a long shot into the empty net, and less than a minute later James Archer followed suit.

The two teams meet again next Sunday at Hull (5.30pm).

Vanya Antonov was voted Bees' man-of-the-match in his last appearance at The Hive at least for this season before moving abroad to work.

While Bees are away on successive nights, sixth-in-the-table Bracknell Hornets host two home South One fixtures next weekend against Solent Devils on Saturday at 6pm, followed by Cardiff Fire 24 hours later, the visiting sides sitting second-from-top and second-from-bottom respectively.