BRACKNELL Bees bounced back from their 9-2 bashing by Basingstoke Bison with an impressive 4-3 overtime over National League leaders Telford Tigers at The Hive on Saturday – and so hopes of completing their first four-point weekend were high ahead of Sunday's home game with lowly Raiders, writes Dave Wright.

These Bees, however, are consistently inconsistent and were beaten 3-2 by the team third-from-bottom of the table, with Bees just one place above them in seventh place.

It means Bracknell have not managed to string two wins together in the first two months of the season.

But it does show any side in the league is capable of beating each other and there are no easy games.

Head coach Doug Sheppard and his players were stung by their performance against Basingstoke and the criticism which followed from a small group of fans.

So, they deserve plenty of credit for the way they reacted, going into the Telford game in a determined and positive mood which had to be admired.

Tigers were on an eight-match winning run and so must have been confident of extending it to nine.

However, they were met head-on by a Bees side who were hell-bent on proving the Basingstoke defeat could be put down as just a bad day at the office.

It took them just four-and-a-half minutes to take the lead through Josh Martin, with Ed Knaggs and Robin Kovar providing the assists.

Brandon Whistle equalised a little over three minutes later, only for Zack Milton to put his side back in front in the ninth minute from a chance set-up by Josh Smith and Joe Baird.

Smith was also involved in the third goal, netted by Roman Malinik after 53 minutes, but in the next minute, Corey Goodison brought the scores back level at 3-3.

In overtime, Bees were soon on power-play with Telford's Ross Kennedy sin-binned for slashing, and less than two minutes later they took advantage of their extra man with Ed Knaggs firing home the winner, the assists coming from Malinik and Vanya Antonov.

The latter returned to table-topping Streatham on Sunday and scored twice, in addition to making two assists, as they defeated Bracknell Hornets 6-3 in the NIHL South One.

It also wasn't a good night for Bees. They fell behind to Raiders just after the 11-minute mark through Brandon Ayliffe, but less than three minutes later it was 1-1 with Ryan Webb finishing off a move involving Brendan Baird, back from a four-match suspension, and Martin.

In an end-to-end game, the two second-period goals came in even quicker succession.

Webb, again combining with Baird, put Bees ahead at 26:17, only for Ross Connolly to reply just 18 seconds later.

The hosts looked the more likely side to score next, but Raiders defended well and in the 51st minute they were caught out with Jake Sylvester netting the winner.

Bracknell, who outshot their visitors 28-26, had chances to equalise, but could not find a way through a packed defence even when they withdrew netminder Adam Goss in favour of six skaters for the final 55 seconds.

The TSI World-sponsored side have a quick chance to gain revenge as the return fixture is at Romford this Sunday (5.15pm), but before that, they will be home to Peterborough Phantoms on Saturday (6.15pm).

A minute's silence was held before Sunday's game in memory of long-time Bees fan, Steve Williams, who had died early last week.

Hornets forward Josh Ealey-Newman has received a four-match ban - October 27 to November 10 - following a fighting incident during the game against Cardiff Fire on October 20.