BRACKNELL Bees must still be kicking themselves for losing 4-3 to Sheffield Steeldogs at The Hive on Sunday, writes Dave Wright.

They dominated large periods of the play, but just could not turn their superiority into goals.

They fired in a remarkable 43 attempts at goal, but only three found their way into the net, while Steeldogs scored four from just 22.

It was a game that Bees should certainly have won and they won’t get too many better opportunities than this to record their first home victory of the season.

Luka Basic, voted his side’s man of the match, and fellow import David Gaborcik were outstanding, proving a constant threat to the Sheffield goal. Both, like the whole team, deserved to have been better rewarded for their efforts.

They both scored with the latter also credited with an assist.

Gaborcik opened Bees’ account in the 18th minute after Steeldogs had scored through both Arnoldas Bosas and Andy Hirst in the opening nine minutes.

Bosas was outnumbered three to one when he scored a power-play goal on 2:47 and the manner in which he was allowed to race through immediately raised concerns among those Bees fans who had seen their side concede eight at Milton Keynes Lightning on Saturday night.

Basic went close to equalising before Hirst made it 2-0 on 8:40 when he followed up after Liam Charnock had seen his effort come back off net-minder Alex Mettam.

If the proceedings had left the supporters rather subdued, then that all changed in the 15th minute.

For no obvious reason, Sheffield’s Callum Pattison decided to show he had not lost his bad-boy image.

He grabbed Scott Spearing, who was in the bench area at the time, and the pair traded punches.

Once they had been separated, referee Matt Thompson called both captains together before Thompson conferred with both his assistants.

Pattison had five minutes in the sin-bin before being kicked out of the game all together, while Spearing had two plus two for rough and unsporting behaviour.

It was not the first time that Sheffield player, who has now totted up more than 100 penalty minutes this season, has been responsible for a bout of fisticuffs at The Hive.

Two years ago he was involved in a number of incidents with Bees players before Pattison raced from the bench to get involved in another fracas, and this time he was thrown out for the rest of the game.

When play resumed last Sunday after a near 10-minute delay, it did not take Bees long to get back in contention with a power player goal from Gaborcik, who set up and finished an attack that also involved Krystof Kafan and Lukas Smital.

Basic was not far away from scoring, while, at the other end, Gaborcik did well to break up a dangerous-looking Sheffield attack in a period that took 50 minutes to complete.

Bees started the second stanza on the offensive with Basic and Smital threatening the visitors’ goal, but on 25:52 they conceded a third goal. Mettam stopped a shot, only to see Donatas Kumeliauskas follow up to score and a little over two minutes later the same player made it 4-1.

Bracknell continued to attack with Smital forcing net-minder James Hadfield into making a smart save, while Spearing added his name to the list of missed chances.

The pressure, however, eventually paid dividends.

James Galazzi netted Bracknell’s second on 37:34 with assists from Josh Smith and Basic, combining with Gaborcik, netted at the second attempt eight seconds before the end of the second period.

Bracknell had 19 shots in this period, but only two found the net, while the Yorkshire side had two from seven.

Bees were right back in the game going into the final 20 minutes, but ended up goalless despite having six players attacking for the last 90 seconds after withdrawing Mettam.

So, results wise, it was a disappointing weekend for the club, but at least this was a much improved performance following their 8-2 drubbing at MK Lightning. Their goals came from Alex Barker and Basic both in the final period with captain Matt Foord earning their man-of-the-match award.

Bees are home this Saturday (6pm) to Telford Tigers before travelling up to Blackpool on Sunday to take on fellow strugglers Manchester Phoenix.