LUKAS SMITAL believes Bracknell Bees are making progress, despite their hopes of a play-off spot being extinguished after back-to-back weekend defeats.
A 7-0 thrashing at the hands of Swindon Wildcats on Saturday left Bees needing to win all their remaining games to stand a chance of a top eight finish.
But Smital’s charges squandered a 4-1 advantage after goals from Martin Pavlicek, Shaun Thompson, Josh Smith and Alex Barker to lose 5-4 against second-placed Milton Keynes Lightning to seal their fate with three games to play.
However, although Bees are now set to finish bottom for the third year in a row, Smital feels the response of his side from Saturday to Sunday shows there are positive signs.
“Against Swindon we were just flat, empty,” Smital told The Wokingham Paper.
“Nothing was going for us and it was one of those games you want to forget.
“The people who never play the game would never understand – it’s hard to describe the feelings you go through as you play games like this.
“It’s not like you don’t want it, you do, but sometimes it’s just not there.
“We were two seconds late to every puck, in the zone we were making slow decisions and wrong decisions. It all comes from being flat, not just physically but mentally, the brain just didn’t work.”
He continued: “We had a chat about it after the game and I addressed a few things.
“I was playing in that game and I was guilty just like everyone else was, there’s no secret.
“But we reset our minds for Sunday and we wanted to show what we are made out of.
“Even though they scored an early goal, we stuck with it, kept going and put four in and unfortunately couldn’t finish the job.
“But if you look overall, it’s progression and that’s the most important thing for me, the progression and to have at least that little ability to turn things around within 24 hours.
“Eventually it’s going to pay off in the future.”
After falling behind, Bees found themselves 4-1 up with less than half an hour played, with hopes of setting up a potentially huge clash with eighth-placed Sheffield Steeldogs this Sunday.
But MK rallied and netted late goals to swing the tie and Smital could not hide his frustration at some calls by the officials on the night.
“I have never, ever in my life spoken about refereeing, but against MK it was just wrong decisions,” said the player-coach.
“It’s kind of hard for me because we get criticised when we play bad but in my eyes that’s what costs you a game sometimes, these decisions, especially when we’ve got the team we have.
“We are battling, we’re grinding and we’re going hard and if you gain a little bit of momentum and they shut you down for what are, in my eyes, weak calls, out of depth calls, it just kills you against teams like that.
“That’s what happened on Sunday and I’ll take full responsibility for saying that out loud.
“It needs to be addressed.”
Smital takes Bees for a return fixture against Lightning on Saturday before welcoming Sheffield to the Hive and he insists his side will battle until he final week.
“I’ve played long enough to know that you don’t go out there to lose,” he said.
“Whether we are fighting for play-offs or not, we will get out there to play our best.
“We need to bring the right attitude, to approach it that we want to win a hockey game because every game matters.
“We’re definitely going to do our best to finish the season as strong as we can.”
