INJURY-HIT Manchester Phoenix battled valiantly over the weekend, but three games in four days proved too much for the reigning champions.

Tony Hand's side beat bitter rivals Sheffield 8-2 on Thursday night after netting an impressive five unanswered first period goals.

Strikes from Frantisek Bakrlik, Michal Psurny, Bobby Chamberlain, Jack Watkins and Ben Wood put Phoenix in control and chased Sheffield netminder Dalibor Sedlar from the net for the remainder of the game.

Sheffield reduced the deficit with goals from Andrew Hirst and Janis Ozolins either side of a Bakrlik powerplay goal in the second period, but further goals from Joe Graham and James Archer completed the rout.

It was a different story over the weekend, however, as a battling Phoenix side lost 4-2 on Saturday night at Swindon Wildcats before going down 5-3 to league leaders Telford.

Against Telford, Phoenix, who were without two key defenceman in captain Luke Boothroyd and Joe Graham, took a shock lead through Robin Kovar in the fourth minute, but were quickly pegged back and the Tigers took the first period lead with goals from Nathan Salem and Blahoslav Novak.

James Neil levelled in the second period but a controversial third goal for the visitors restored their lead. An apparent offside decision going against the hosts left Sam Zajac to net on the powerplay.

Scott McKenzie gave the Tigers a two-goal cushion with a goal early in the third period as the short-benched Phoenix began to tire, but Jack Watkins made sure Phoenix fought until the end with a deflected finish past Telford netminder Tom Murdy.

But any hopes of a comeback were dashed moments later when Joe Miller hit the visitors' fifth to seal the points.

Hand said after the game: “I could not be more proud of the lads tonight. They gave their all and worked so hard all evening.

"Credit to Telford, they are a good side and used their bench to good effect all game. We will take positives from this game and put some good practice in during the week in preparation for next weekend.”