Invicta Dynamos are back on home ice this Sunday after a weekend on the road where not everything went to plan.

Head coach Karl Lennon praised the support they had at Cardiff and Swindon but was frustrated to return home with only one win to celebrate.

A comfortable 9-2 victory against Cardiff Fire was followed by a narrow defeat against Swindon Wildcats 2, losing in the closing stages in a game they were expected to win.

Lennon knows they can’t afford to be giving away those points, as they have done in the past two weekends, having also lost narrowly to the Romford Buccaneers.

They play bottom side Milton Keynes Thunder this Sunday, a team they recently beat 12-1.

“It's a game that you're expected to win,” said the coach.

“I think that was probably our problem on Sunday, we expect to win and don’t earn a win. That's something we need to eradicate from our mindset.

“As a club, we have expectations on ourselves, as owners, as coaches, as players, and everything. We can't just expect, we have to earn these things, win the fights first and we didn't win that on Sunday. This Sunday we'll have to do that.

“Every defeat we've had this season has been by one or two goals. These are the fine margins of success and failure.

“We now put ourselves in positions where we absolutely need to steal points off other teams around us in order to sort of get ourselves back on track. Are we capable of doing it? Absolutely.

“I still have faith in the team. It's not like I'm going to abort all of my beliefs in them but we definitely need to be a little bit more dialled in than what we were on the weekend, and in other games.

“It’s the second week on the spin that we've lost a game that we should, on paper, have won. Fair play on both occasions to the opposition. They outplayed us, and that's not good enough because it's not a question of quality, it's all about application, and that's something you can deal with yourself, and we didn't.”

The Mos were away to Cardiff Fire first up last Saturday and eased to a big win, which could have been even greater. They had another goal disallowed, missed three empty nets and faced an impressive netminder.

Lennon said: “We were comfortable throughout, really. We had long, long spells of dominance in terms of pressure on them.

“In all honesty, Saturday's game was not great preparation for Sunday's. We were kind of lured into a false sense of security that we could just make things happen like we did on Saturday evening.

“Actually, it would have been better probably for us to play the reverse way round, but that's the way the fixtures are and we have to deal with that.”

Aaron Connolly (2), Oliver Bronnimann, Richard Harris, Tom Soar (2), Ruskin Springer-Hughes and Mads Thune (2) got their goals. A stop-over that night was followed by a trip to Swindon the next day - a side they’d beaten 6-1 at home at the end of September.

But it proved a frustrating visit to the Wildcats, who managed the game well. The Mos had been missing four key D-men for the weekend but still should have had enough to overcome both opposition.

“We started very, very sluggishly and they took a lead,” Lennon said.

“Across the whole game we actually had a lot of the puck. It wasn't like we were in our zone under pressure for long, long spells. I think they took 13 shots on us on the whole night, which is very good.”

The Mos were undone by two goals scored on the break, near identical moments that twice put Swindon ahead. It was 2-2 heading into the final period, the Mos leading the shot count 20-11.

Lennon’s side were putting some pressure on late in the game but Swindon called a timeout with 1:15 to go and when play resumed Invicta’s Soar was penalised for a trip. A goal timed at 59:17 won it for Swindon.

“They frustrated us for a whole period,” Lennon admitted.

“The clock ran quickly because they played a really simple game against us and it was super-effective. All credit to them, they were brilliant. I know their coach extremely well. He's a good guy and you can tell that he's got them really well drilled.

“I'm pretty sure that they'll throw up many surprises across the season, not least this one.

“We had a really great weekend together, we had a really solid performance on the Saturday and everyone's morale was high moving into Swindon. Our morale didn't match our intensity and ultimately that cost us.”

Lennon was keen to praise the fans who followed them over the weekend.

He said: “They were quite phenomenal across the whole weekend. For me, that was the one big highlights of all of what was going on.

“They were outstanding and I was extremely grateful for them to make that effort.

“I think they had a great time themselves away, probably less so on Sunday night, but Saturday evening they were in good spirits. I'm very grateful for that support and this club is capable of doing that at this level, which is very special.”

This Sunday’s game at Planet Ice (5.45pm) will see the club’s junior players get a chance to showcase their talent, with the under-10 and under-12s playing at the interval.

Lennon’s son will be one of them.

He said: “I'm sure they're chomping at the bit to do it and as a dad, it will be a proud moment for me to watch, although I don't know what my state of mind I’ll be at that point in time!

“These guys are huge, huge supporters of our team. They're our mascots throughout the course of the season and we're eternally grateful for that support. It's great that they get a little moment themselves to play on the big ice in front of a bigger crowd.”