King's Lynn Stars ace Kai Huckenbeck conceded they were simply beaten by a better team after going down 50-40 to Swindon at the Adrian Flux Arena.

The revamped Stars put in a battling display but were unable to prevent the in-form Robins from securing their ninth straight win.

Huckenbeck, who top scored for the hosts with an impressive 11-point haul, nonetheless believes they could take plenty of positives from the meeting.

Said Huckenbeck: 'It's unfortunate we lost, but I think we all tried our best and you can't ask much more. Swindon were just too strong for us. They're a very good team and deserved to win, but maybe we'll learn some things and do better next time.

'I hope we can improve with the new signings. I know all these guys and they're good guys, so I think we're going to stick together and do better over the rest of the season.'

The two sides were all square entering the final five races before Swindon pulled clear with three 5-1s in the closing stages.

Huckenbeck impressed with three race wins including the ride of the night to brilliantly squeeze around Adam Ellis entering the last lap of heat 14.

But their only other race win came when Robert Lambert won heat 10 to haul them level after the visitors had taken the lead for the first time.

The battered and bruised Lambert experienced a tough night and ended his evening with a fall in heat 15, whilst new signing Tomas H Jonasson showed plenty of speed but struggled out of the start on his debut.

Fellow new recruit Michael Palm Toft had a difficult evening, whilst Josh Auty and lower order partner Simon Lambert both added creditable scores. King's Lynn will be back in action as they head to Leicester on Saturday.

KING'S LYNN 40: Kai Huckenbeck 11, Robert Lambert 6+1, Thomas Jorgensen 6+1, Josh Auty 5+2, Tomas H Jonasson 5, Simon Lambert 4+2, Michael Palm-Toft 3.

SWINDON 50: Tobiasz Musielak 13+2, Nick Morris 13+2, Adam Ellis 11, David Bellego 9, Bradley Wilson-Dean 4, Jake Knight 0, Jason Doyle 0.