They crashed to two 5–1 away defeats last weekend at local rivals Swindon Wildcats on Saturday and then against Sheffield Steeldogs a day later.

Well adrift at the foot of the English Premier League, Bees’ meagre tally of 18 points leaves them a massive 17 behind Sheffield, the side immediately above them, with just five matches remaining.

They hit early problems against Swindon with Lukas Smital sent to the sin-bin for two minutes after a hooking offence and Wildcats took advantage of the powerplay to take the lead through Aaron Nell.

But in the fifth minute Wildcats lost Sam Bullas and Bees made the extra man count with Smital setting up the equaliser for Vanya Antonov.

Play swung from end to end until Bees fell foul of the referee again as James Galazzi received two minutes for hooking in the 11th minute. Again the hosts took advantage of the power play to regain the lead through Nell.

Nell then turned provider, setting up Jonas Hogg to make it 3-1 after 33 minutes.

Bees had chances in the second period, but they just couldn’t find a way past netminder Stevie Lyle.

The visitors found themselves a man short again as Galazzi received two minutes for tripping and Wildcats piled on the pressure which led to them scoring again, this time through Tomas Kana after 37 minutes.

Now trailing by three goals, Bracknell made a bright start to the third period, producing a series of attacks.

A clash between Galazzi and Bullas saw both men in the sin-bin before Nell completed his hat-trick to make it 5-1.

Bees contined to push forwards, but were unable to find a way through the home defence.

In all, Bees had 28 shots at goal, while Swindon had 39.

Man-of-the-match awards went to young Thomas Beesley on his Bees debut and to Swindon’s Lee Richardson.

Sunday’s match at fellow strugglers Sheffield was a feisty encounter.

The first man in trouble for Bees was Pavel Strycek for tripping and they paid the penalty in powerplay by conceding a goal to Janis Ozolins.

When they tried to hit back they found netminder Dalibor Sedlar in good form.

With only eight seconds remaining in the period Radek Hubacek and Steven Duncombe clashed, leaving both with 2+2 punishments.

From the resulting face-offs, there was another incident involving Galazzi and Andre Payette, and they too received 2+2.

With the penalties carrying over into the second period, the game swung from end to end, although both sides were restricted to shots from disance.

But in the final minute of the period, Bees conceded a second goal when Alex Mettam was beaten by a tame-looking shot from Tom Squires.

Soon afterwards, Sheffield’s Andrew Hirst found himself in the sin-bin, quickly followed by Hubacek and Lee Haywood when they traded blows. Duncombe tried to intervene and was handed a game penalty.

Bees started the third period on the offensive and after seven minutes they finally found a way past Sedlar to make it 2-1.

With Bracknell pushing hard for the equaliser, they got caught out at the back. Mettam saved well from Lee Haywood, but couldn’t keep out the rebound shot from Tom Squires.

Bracknell continued to press, but again they left themselves open and conceded two late goals to Andrew Hirst and Ashley Calvert.

Harvey Stead was voted Bees’ man of the match.

Bees finished the game with a total of 18 penalty minutes compared to the home side’s 46, with Duncombe responsible for 26 of them.

Bracknell, whose last win was against Swindon on January 11, will be hoping to end their long, losing sequence this weekend.

They travel to MK Lightning on Saturday (7pm) before entertaining Basingstoke Bison at The Hive on Sunday (6pm).

Voting open for end of season awards VOTING for the Bracknell Bees Supporters Club’s annual end of season awards is now open.

Fans can vote in a number of categories and the winners will be announced at the club’s presentation evening on April 11 at Jennetts Park Community Centre in Bracknell.

The categories are: • Player of the Season • Best Forward • Best Defenceman • Colin White Memorial Trophy for Best British Player • Most Improved Player Fans can vote via email (beessc@gmail.com), on Twitter (@BBSC1), on Facebook (www.facebook.com/BeesSC or on match nights at the BBSC kiosk upstairs behind block 5.

Tickets for the presentation evening are also available at the kiosk.