Deeside Dragons are hoping to secure their third win in four games as they prepare for a trip to Yorkshire to face the Sheffield Senators on Sunday.

The two sides face off again three weeks after they played out an exhilarating end to end match in Flintshire where the home team claimed an overtime victory in front of a crowd of relieved supporters.

Gary Shaw’s Dragons team found themselves 6-1 ahead against the Senators at the beginning of the third period in that fixture, only to be pegged back to 6-6 after a late collapse from the hosts saw Sheffield score five in just under 17 minutes.

But the in-form James Shaw – who has 11 goals so far this season – rose to the occasion to spare his side’s blushes with a strike in the second minute of overtime that sealed his hat-trick and a victory for the Flintshire club.

Now, after the Dragons put their recent final period woes to bed by scoring three in five late minutes to secure a 7-5 win at Altrincham last time out, Shaw hopes the team have turned a corner.

The Dragons boss said: “It will be a tough ask against Sheffield who will have a much bigger squad than the one they brought to Deeside.

“The way we played on Sunday (against Altrincham), though, shows that we’ve turned a corner, and we showed that we were mentally strong.

“We’ve struggled in the final period of games this season, but at Altrincham we managed the game really well once we had a two-goal lead, so hopefully we can do that again.”

Alex Parry, Geraint Evans, and Gavin Austin will all miss Sunday’s trip to Sheffield, but the Dragons will still be able to call upon a core group of players who have come into form in recent weeks.

James Shaw and Deeside’s captain James Parsons go into the game looking to add to their 11 strikes so far this season, while one more goal would also move Chris Keating into double figures.

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Radim Reznicek, meanwhile, put in a man of the match performance against the Aces where the import claimed his fifth goal and seventh assist of the campaign.

And after being hailed for one of his best performances in a Dragons shirt, Deeside’s player-coach Marc Lovell hopes the new signing can continue to perform.

He added: “That game (the 7-5 win against Altrincham) was probably Radim’s best since coming here so hopefully he can carry on having that kind of impact.

“Sam Bolwell has been playing excellently too, and James Shaw has been in good form as well, chipping in with some vital goals.”

Elsewhere over the weekend in the Laidler Conference, Telford Tigers welcome an Altrincham team who are looking to bounce back from their recent defeat to the Dragons.

A win for the visitors would take them level on points with the Tigers having played a game less, while a defeat would leave the Aces at risk of being overtaken by Deeside.

Sheffield, meanwhile, travel to Lancashire a day before hosting Gary Shaw’s Dragons to face the league’s winless bottom club Blackburn Hawks 2.