On paper, another weekend without any points would look bad for Telford Tigers, but the team was upbeat after two close-fought matches - and for player-coach Tom Watkins there were plenty of positives.
 
Tigers fell 3-2 at home to Peterborough in a tightly-matched contest, before going down 8-5 on the road to Basingstoke.
 
"Generally I am pleased with how we played over the weekend," said Watkins. "We showed a lot of heart and character, and we never gave up in either game."
 
The hearts were in evidence on Saturday as Tigers skated out at home in their special Valentine's pink kit. However they fought as hard as ever for the points, despite missing sick forwards Jack Watkins and Andy McKinney.
 
Declan Ryan got a rare home start in goal and made some superb saves before being beaten at 11:24 by a fumbled goalmouth scramble. But Tigers struck back four minutes later, Scott McKenzie firing in glove side off a Luke Brittle pass from behind the net.
 
The middle session saw Phantoms score just once, on the powerplay, setting up a tense finale.
 
And it was man of the match Dan Scott, skating as a forward rather than his customary defenceman role, who equalised at 48:58, with his first goal for the team. However Peterborough restored their lead just four minutes from time, the puck going in off Ryan's back - and although the goalie was pulled in the final minute Tigers were unable to steal a draw.
 
Afterwards, Watkins said: "Both teams were a little flat at times, but we were in the game throughout. Either team could have taken the points.
 
"We had some good opportunities to score, especially MacKriel and Salem, but sometimes they just don't go in.
 
"We have to take heart from staying with a team who have four very good imports. We ran them close."  
 
And Watkins was pleased to see young GB international Dan Scott open his account for Tigers.
 
"With Jack and Andy off sick we were a little short up front and Dan fancies himself as a power forward so we put him on the wing. He's done it in a couple of games now and this time it paid off.
 
"He's a big guy and skates well, so he can go hard at the opposition. Believe me, as a defenceman you don't enjoy having to get back into position when you have someone like that bearing down on the net.
 
"Declan has been solid all season whenever we put him in. Our goalies don't have the best defence in front of them and they are stopping some quality shots.
 
"Both of them play with big smiles on their faces and are keeping their focus and belief in themselves."
 
Sunday saw Tigers at Basingstoke, where they took a two-goal lead in the first period - Scott McKenzie scoring unassisted at 4:04 and Tom Watkins adding a powerplay goal at 7:28. Bison pulled one back before the break and added two more in the middle session to take a 3-2 lead into the decider.
 
Josh Bruce equalised at 42:28 but then, possibly because they were down five players - retired Ashley Stanton and missing Jack Watkins, Nathan Salem, Ross Hanlon and Andrejs Maslovskis through sickness or work commitments - Tigers struggled to keep up with their hosts.
 
Bison scored three quick goals before Ashley Calvert made it 6-4 at 46:51 and, although Basingstoke added two more, Tigers refused to give up, with Luke Brittle adding a fifth goal for the Shropshire lads in the dying minutes of the game.
 
Watkins said: "We were with them for over 40 minutes and really it was just a couple of errors that cost us. We were in it for most of the game and played a lot more defensively.
 
"It was a good team performance, but we have to be realistic; we were playing with just one import - if we had the same quality and quantity of imports as other teams who knows how we could do?
 
"We will struggle against the calibre of teams in the league, but as long as we are playing with heart and character we can hold our heads up and perhaps pull off a few more surprises."
 
Tigers travel to Milton Keynes on Saturday before hosting Bracknell Bees on Sunday (5.30pm).

TELFORD TIGERS 2 PETERBOROUGH PHANTOMS 3
TIGERS: Scott McKenzie, Dan Scott 1+0; Ashley Calvert, Tom Watkins, Luke Brittle 0+1
Man of the Match: Dan Scott
 
BASINGSTOKE BISON 8 TELFORD TIGERS 5
TIGERS: Scott McKenzie 1+1; Ashley Calvert, Luke Brittle, Tom Watkins, Josh Bruce 1+0; Andy McKinney, Tomas Janak 0+2; Joe Henry, Mike Jones, Daniel MacKriel 0+1
Man of the Match: Ashley Calvert