BRACKNELL Bees captain Matt Foord considered his side were unfortunate not to have beaten Manchester Phoenix at The Hive on Sunday, writes Dave Wright.

Bees took an early 2-0 lead but squandered numerous scoring chances and lost 3-2.

“We controlled the game for the best part of the first two periods,” said Foord.

“I thought this was a game we could win. Although we got a bit tired towards the end, we still had chances. They were chances we should have taken.”

Apart from their finishing, Foord believed his injury-hit side could not have played any better against a Manchester outfit packed with experienced players and imports.

He said: “It was a really good effort by the guys; everyone played their hearts out. But we were just a bit unfortunate.

“I thought the guys worked super hard, but we made a couple of mistakes and were made to pay for them.

“But at the same time, they (Manchester) have four decent imports and they took their chances.”

Bees opened up a two-goal advantage in the first period through Vanya Antonov and Scott Spearing.

But shortly after his goal, Spearing went in too high with his stick on an opponent and was promptly given a five-minute suspension, which was upped to a match ban.

With their attacking options depleted even further, Bees were unable to add to their tally and Manchester halved their deficit in the second period before scoring twice more in the final 10 minutes of the game.

In many respects it was still an encouraging performance by the side firmly rooted at the bottom of the table.

“We just need to get a couple of wins behind us to get things going,” added Foord.

“If we get some bodies back we could surprise a few people.”

Player-coach Lukas Smital (broken finger) and Lewis Turner (concussion) were both having fitness tests this week ahead of two more home games at the weekend.

Title-chasing Peterborough Phantoms are the visitors on Saturday, followed by second-from-bottom Hull Pirates on Sunday (both 6pm).