Lee Valley looking to bounce back

Lee Valley Lions will look to put a tough weekend behind them after losing heavily to Chelmsford Warriors and Basingstoke Bison.

The Lions are in the midst of a road trip that is threatening to derail what has been an improved second half to their season.

In their first 11 matches, the Lions picked up just one win, narrowly defeating the Haringey Racers, 7-6.

But since then their fortunes have been on the rise, starting with a 6-2 win away to Invicta, and the Lions have compiled a 3-1-5 record in the second half of the season, including league and cup matches.

However, a six-game road trip, which concludes on Saturday against Chelmsford, has been tough for the team as they have gone 1-1-3 and conceded 27 goals.

But captain Nicholas Alley says that away matches cannot be blamed for some hard losses.

Alley said, “We play so many of these teams each year. We play Slough six times in a season. You get accustomed to these rinks.

“On the flip side, we had a lot of home games earlier, and we should be using that to our advantage. But it really shouldn’t matter. We know where we’re playing. As long as we play our system, it shouldn’t come as a shock.”

Alley was pleased with his side’s performance against Basingstoke on Sunday, despite losing 6-2, as the Lions had lost by 10 goals to the same team earlier this season.

He added: “A few guys are out injured, so to come with two lines and to only lose by a few goals, we’ll take some positives. But we’re always looking to win.”

The Lions captain also said that Lee Valley are still gelling as a team, which makes it difficult to play for 60 minutes against the top teams.

“I think we’re just a couple of steps of consistency off running teams like this,” he said.

“A lot of the guys have only been playing together for a few weeks, so once we start to build on that and get to know each other, then that will come.

“I think it’s important to highlight the mistakes. If we don’t highlight those, we’re not going to improve on them.

“Everyone knows what’s gone wrong and what’s gone right, and we’ll start to iron out the small mistakes and we’ll be good.”