DOUG SHEPPARD believes there is still enough time in the season for Bracknell Bees to build up momentum heading into the play-offs.
Bees were missing six players for Saturday’s 2-1 home loss against Streatham as suspensions and unavailability took their toll at The Hive.
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Following the aftermath of the cup semi-final loss against Peterborough Phantoms, Ryan Watt was banned for the season while Joe Baird and Brendan Baird are also serving bans for fighting, but Ben Paynter is now available again. Head coach Sheppard has spent the past two games away from the bench due to team penalties while Josh Martin (ill) and Vanya Antonov (international duty) have also been missing.
And with just two weekends remaining of regular season action, starting with a double header against Basingstoke Bison, Sheppard says it’s time for his side to step up.
“When you are as short as you are, down six guys, you need every single player to turn up and play for 60 minutes,” Bracknell’s head coach told The Wokingham Paper.
“I’m not sure that happened on Saturday.
“We had one or two guys that weren’t completely going so we need to sort that out and make sure we’re all going in a couple of weeks time when we start the play-offs.”
He added: “It’s not an ideal situation but the guys that are out are still able to train hard.
“But by not playing the game minutes, we should be peaking and we should be fresh come play-off time.
“You want to get a rhythm going and I think we’ve got just enough time when we should have our whole line-up back. We’ll still have three regular season games so that should give us enough time to get going but I think it’s going to take its toll on the guys that are logging a lot of minutes for now.
“But we can monitor that in training and the guys that are out are going to have to push themselves that much so we are all getting as much out of it as we can and making the most of a bad situation.”
Sheppard has been forced to leave bench duties in the past two matches to Adrian Worship and Scott Spearing, last season’s head coach. But he did return to the sidelines on Wednesday night in the league trip to Peterborough, which ended in an overtime defeat.
“It does give you a different view watching from up top,” said Sheppard.
“I was leaving things in good hands with Scott, who has got experience. I think he did a great job when I wasn’t allowed on the bench.
“I think the work ethic was certainly there from the guys over the last two games.”
Top spot in the league is now out of reach for Bracknell, who sit fourth, but they could still finish as high as second.
However, Sheppard is not too concerned about the final table.
“With it being so tight from second to fifth place, now that Swindon have pretty much wrapped up the league, I would imagine everyone’s goal is going to be to win the play-offs.
“To me, whether we finish second or fifth isn’t the most important thing.
“Obviously you want to finish as high as you can in the standings but it’s all about gearing up for the play-offs.
“It doesn’t matter who you draw. If you’re going to win it, you’re going to have to beat everyone anyway.”
He added: “We’re very short benched so it’s going to be a tough task (against Basingstoke this weekend), but I think we’ve shown that we can still win hockey games.
“We’ve been talking about the depth of the team all year and it’s a huge opportunity for some guys that are playing in different roles and it gives them a chance to prove themselves.
“We’re going to deal with the suspensions and steady the ship while we are short and then when we get everybody back, we’ve got to make sure we’re going on all cylinders and make sure we’re playing our best hockey going into the play-offs.”
