Glasgow Clan head coach Zack Fitzgerald had to watch his side fall to yet another EIHL defeat last night, with Nottingham Panthers coming out 4-2 winners at Braehead Arena.
With the Clan on a disappointing run of form having lost four of their last five games, a win was badly needed last night.
But by the third period, Nottingham had grabbed a 3-0 lead and although Fitzgerald's men got two goals back, a winner by Brian Connelly sealed the win for the visitors.
It was a disappointing night for Fitzgerald, but the American was still able to take some positives from the defeat.
"I can’t fault the effort," the head coach said.
"We left it out there. We were down most of the game and then coming into the third, went down again unfortunately but it was a good claw-back.
"Our power-play is really struggling right now unfortunately.
"The guys definitely wanted it so there’s no lack of effort.
"We were a bit more on our toes and they probably felt like they needed to defend a little bit more but then they popped another one. It’s difficult to claw yourself out of that when you’re a couple of goals down.
"Unfortunately our power play isn’t helping us right now so we’ve got to find a way to sort that out. Get back to basics or whatever it takes. It can be a game-changer and right now, it’s holding us back from changing games."
The Clan play Coventry Blaze on Saturday and having narrowly 5-3 lost away to Coventry last weekend, Fitzgerald is optimistic it can be a different outcome this time aorund.
"I thought we played very well against Coventry down there," he said.
"I think we deserved more out of that game down there so hopefully we can bring that same thing here on Saturday and get those points because they’re much-needed points. It’s very tight between seventh, eighth and ninth."
There are just eleven games of the EIHL remaining and with the Clan in seventh place, equal on points with Manchester Storm in eighth and merely a single point ahead of Dundee Stars in ninth, every game is now vital fpor Fitzgerald's men.
"We play Manchester twice and Dundee in the run-in so they’re big, big games for us," he said.
"Every game for us now is huge and I hope the boys feel that."
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