Peterborough Phantoms have no head coach and have suffered a collapse in form, but they've vowed to bounce back strongly

Back-to-back defeats against Solway Sharks over a punishing weekend have left the city side next-to-bottom in the National League standings. It’s five defeats in a row for a side who parted company with head coach Ash Tait last week.

His coaching assistants Nathan Pollard, Tom Norton and Janne Laakkonen took charge against Solway, but they didn’t make an immediate impact on an injury stricken squad as Phantoms went down 7-3 in Scotland on Saturday and then 6-2 at Planet Ice on Sunday, a game they led 2-1 entering the final period.

Standings: 1 MK P10 17pts, 2 Hull P10 16pts, 3 Romford P10 16pts, 4 Swindon P8 12pts, 5 Sheffield P10 12pts, 6 Telford P9 9pts, 7 Basingstoke P10 9pts, 8 Solway P10 8pts, 9 Leeds P10 8pts, 10 PHANTOMS P10 6pts, 11 Bristol P9 4pts.

But long-serving defender Callum Buglass struck a defiant tone when interviewed by the Phantoms in-house media team after the Sunday loss.

Buglass said: “The main thing now is for everyone to stick together and to work as hard as possible. We will see what happens with the coaching situation, but whoever comes in, or if it’s Nathan, Janne and Tom, we must get behind them.

"There’s still a long way to go in the season, but we must draw a line under our results, learn from them, bounce back and come back stronger.

"We are getting punished for every mistake we make. but it’s sport and we have to roll with the punches. We can’t dwell on things, but we have to make sure we respond accordingly.

"No-one in our dressing room wants a career as an also ran. We want to challenge for trophies and I have confidence in everyone in the dressing room that we can do that.”

Phantoms fell behind at Planet Ice to a goal from their former player Duncan Speirs, but Dillon Lawrence and Luke Ferrara had fired the hosts in front before the first break. They didn’t manage to score again.

The second period was goalless with Phantoms failing to take advantage of a five-on-three powerplay situation and they were then made to suffer in a final period Solway won 5-0.

Owen Cole blasted a final session hat-trick with Jordan Buesa and Calum McGill also netting past back-up netminder Will Bray.

Phantoms had started slowly in the Dumfries Ice Bowl the night before and conceded five goals in the opening period to Buesa (2), McGill, Speirs and Callum Boyd. Lawrence had briefly reduced the arrears to 3-1.

Scott Henderson made it 6-1 before Dom Gabaj struck twice to give Phantoms some hope at 6-3 going into the final 20 minutes, but Solway’s Alex Johnston grabbed the only goal of the final stanza in the final to complete a 7-3 win.

Phantoms are back in action at Sheffield Steeldogs on Saturday (October 24, 7pm face-off) before Romford Raiders visit Planet Ice on Sunday (5.30pm).