SLOUGH Jets head coach Lukas Smital is targeting a win against Bristol Pitbulls on Saturday in order to improve their league position this season.

The Jets suffered a 14-3 defeat away at high-flying Solent Devils in their return to action from the Christmas break last weekend, leaving them in 10th position in National Ice Hockey League South Two.

Slough can move closer to the top half of the table with a return to winning form and, having lost to Bristol by the odd goal on the opening day, Smital believes his side will know what to expect.

The Jets head coach told the Observer: “It’s a home game for us and a different rink for Bristol to play at.

“We lost to them in the dying seconds in the first match of the season so we know what to expect and hopefully we can beat them in the return fixture.

“We will work on a few things in practice and be ready for the weekend because these are the games that we should be focusing on.

“There are a few teams that we’re looking to compete with and if we can win those games we should be in a good spot.

“We’ve had a run of games where we’ve played some fine hockey but we just need to take it game by game.”

Slough were well beaten by Solent in Gosport on Saturday and Smital admits his side cannot compete with the best in the league at the moment.

He said: “Solent absolutely dominated us and are at a different level. We played to our potential ability-wise but it wasn’t enough to be challenging teams like that.

“If you play against one of the strongest teams in the league it’s always going to be tough. There are two levels and we have to be realistic, we can’t compete with teams like the top three.”

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