BASINGSTOKE Bison head coach Doug Sheppard is looking for his side to bounce back to winning ways after they crashed to their worst defeat of the season at the hands of league leaders Milton Keynes Lightning last Saturday.

The previous night, the Herd came back from two goals down against the Guildford Flames to maintain their 100 per cent home record.

Sheppard said: “We have to get back to playing with energy and focus. We are team which wins game through hard work and last weekend we only played for the last 20 minutes of the Guildford match, which is not good enough.”

This weekend, first up for the third-placed Bison is a trip to Sheffield Steeldogs on Saturday, starting at 5.30pm. This is followed by a visit from the Swindon Wildcats on Sunday, 5.30pm.

The Herd have yet to face either of this weekend’s opponents and Sheppard knows that if his side fails to turn up in either game, they are going to get beaten.

The Steeldogs are coached by former Bison favourite Greg Wood and like Basingstoke they have an import netminder in Dalibor Sedlar. They also have two very useful eastern European forwards in Arnoldas Bosas and Lubomir Korhon.

The Dogs are currently on a three game losing streak. The last two losses came at home and included an overtime defeat to leaders Milton Keynes.

They are sure to push the Bison all the way and in previous seasons, Ice Sheffield has not proved to be a happy hunting ground for the Herd.

Sheppard said: “It is tough playing in Sheffield as it is long bus ride, but we have to make sure we are switched on as soon as we hit the ice.

“I don’t want us to give up two early goals again, as it will make it hard to come back.”

British forward Alan Lack, who scored the game-winning goal against Guildford last weekend, is unavailable for both games this weekend.

Jacob Ranson will travel to Sheffield on Saturday and then Ryan Sutton, who is in Buffalo action on Saturday night, will play in the home game against Swindon on Sunday.

The Wildcats are also coached by a former Bison fans’ favourite, Stevie Lyle, and with four import forwards and top British sniper Aaron Nell, they have a lot of firepower.

When they get it right they can beat anyone, but at the moment they are finding it hard to string a winning run together and are sixth in the table, having won six of their 12 games.

Sheppard said: “They are a very dangerous team going forward, so we will have to be at the top of our game defensively if we are going to stop them.”