LUKAS Smital is not losing faith in his Bracknell Bees team despite seeing them suffer two more defeats at the weekend, writes Dave Wright.

They have won only once in their last 23 EPIHL matches and last week lost their services of one of their imports, Milan Kostourek.

Smital himself has been sidelined with a broken finger, while Lewis Turner is ruled out after being concussed recently.

But the player-coach remains optimistic and his positiveness in the locker room is being shared by his depleted squad.

“I believe things will turn our way and the team believe it as well.

“We will keep plugging away,” Smital said following two narrow defeats at the weekend.

Bees lost 3-1 at leaders Basingstoke on Saturday with Bison only sealing victory with a third goal in the closing stages of the game.

Then on Sunday, Bees were beaten by Swindon Wildcats for the second week in succession, going down by the odd goal in five.

Following their Swindon reverse, Smital told the News: “We played well. I felt we reached our true potential, but two mistakes in the second period cost us.

“We addressed that in the third and executed exactly what talked about. We got right at them (Swindon) but just didn’t get that little bit of luck we wanted.

“Once again we lost, but I cannot fault anybody’s effort.

“We are a team with a bunch of teenagers and one import at the moment. I cannot ask any more from my guys.”

Referring to Saturday’s defeat at Basingstoke, Smital commented: “We battled hard; they played a pretty decent defensive game. We had chances against the team who are the best in the league at the moment.

“We are not creating as many chances as we did when we had a full roster, so (our) execution needs to be more precise, but that is not easy.”

Bees’ attacking strength has been diminished by the loss of leading points scorer Kostourek, who has signed for a German club in order to be nearer the home of his sick mother.

The 33-year-old Czech forward lost his father last year.

“Losing him takes that scoring element away, as in tight situations you need players like Milan to put in that extra shot,” said Smital.

The player-coach was planning to check out his broken finger this week, as he is keen to get back on the ice.

“I will try it out to see how it feels, but it has got to be okay before I play again,” continued Smital.

“Even if I can help the team with little things then I will be back.”

Lewis Turner is still recovering from the concussion he suffered in the match against Peterborough two weeks ago.

“I am not going to force him to come back too soon. It is not worth the risk,” said Smital.

“He needs to know when he is ready because it (concussion) can be very dangerous and could cost him his career.”