DEESIDE DRAGONS need to 'find their ruthless streak' in Sunday's home clash with basement side Blackburn Hawks seconds.

The club's recent return to form proved shortlived last weekend when they fell to successive defeats to Altrincham Aces and Coventry Blaze in their weekend fixture double-header.

Player coach Marc Lovell was left frustrated by the Dragons' 'wasteful' finishing in the 2-1 home reverse to Blaze and has demanded a more clinical display from the club's attackers.

He said: "The Coventry game highlighted a real problem from our point of view in terms of our lack of finishing quality.

"How we were beaten in that game I don't know. We've absolutely dominated in attack but just haven’t been able to find the net.

"If you’re having almost 50 efforts on goal you need to be scoring a lot more than the one we put away.

"Their netminder had a decent game but we sent a lot of efforts straight at him and there wasn't much variation in our attacks.

"It showed us that our finishing really has to improve quickly and we'll need to be a little bit more ruthless and a bit smarter in our all round play."

The Hawks enter the contest in dire form after six successive league defeat in the Laidler Conference, with the Lancashire side hammered 22-2 at Widnes Wild last weekend.

The Dragons have already inflicted a 13-6 reverse on tomorrow's opponents this season, with skipper James Parsons netting five times in the rout.

And Lovell has challenged his players to exploit any frailties in the visitors' defence and emerge with a morale-boosting victory.

He added: "Blackburn have been shipping a lot of goals of late and can look a bit suspect defensively sometimes, but that doesn't mean we can afford to take them lightly.

"They put six past us in the away game, so they're a capable side on their day and we'll have to show a lot more quality than we did in our last two games.

"This is a very unpredictable league and any team that isn't fully committed during games will be punished by the opposition."

Netminder Jonah Armstrong misses the clash with Dominic Jolly set to deputise, while experienced forward Simon Furnival returns to bolster the Dragons' attacking options.

Conference action starts this evening as leaders Bradford Bulldogs host Widnes, while Senators visit Hull Jets and Blackburn host Altrincham.

Tomorrow's clashes see Bradford head to Senators, Altrincham at home to Coventry while Telford Tigers entertain Hull.