HAVING ended their nine-game losing streak last weekend at Billingham Buccaneers, Bradford Bulldogs will look to build on their turnaround in fortunes over a double-header weekend.

The Bulldogs hit the road on Saturday for a lunchtime face-off at bottom club Kingston Sharks before enjoying home ice again on Sunday when they play host to Altrincham Aces (face-off 5.30pm).

It was the Sharks - newcomers to NIHL North Two this season - who provided the first opposition for Bradford in 2023-24, the Bulldogs running out 10-8 winners on home ice back in September.

The Sharks have found life difficult in their debut campaign but picked up their first win a couple of weeks ago with a fantastic 4-2 victory at second-placed Sutton Sting.

That means they have the potential to make life difficult for the Bulldogs, something head coach Andy Brown is acutely aware of.

“Hopefully we can build on last week’s win at Billingham and take it into this weekend,” said Brown.

“Even though Kingston have had their struggles, that win they got against Sutton shows what they are capable of.

“Butif we can play the way we did last Sunday, we also know what we’re capable of.”

The visit of Altrincham offers the Bulldogs a chance to even the score after losing out 4-3 in Cheshire three weeks ago, the result made all the more frustrating with the visitors having got themselves 2-0 up inside the first period.

It was the same last week in Billingham when the Bulldogs enjoyed the better of the opening 20 minutes, going 2-0 ahead through Josh Stockton, his first coming at 6.48 before he doubled his tally just under three minutes later.

A power play opportunity saw the hosts halve the deficit at 15.09 through Lucas Dowdle, but the visitors soon restored their two-goal advantage, Connor Medley firing home with just two seconds of the period remaining.

Tom Wakefield made it a one-goal game again at 25.22, only for Medley to double his quota for the night and restore his team’s advantage just 58 seconds later.

It got even better for both Medley and his team just over six minutes later when he sealed his second hat-trick of the season to make it 5-2.

Sean Griffiths scored on the power play for the Buccaneers to make it 5-3 at 37.02 and the hosts pushed hard in the third to try and get back on level terms.

The Bulldogs and netminder Jake Lowndes stayed strong, however, and it wasn’t until the 59th minute that Billingham found the net again, this time through former Bulldogs’ forward Josh Reynolds.

But 5-4 was as close as it got, the Bulldogs seeing the game out for a deserved two points.

“It was great to take the lead early and be able to play with it for the entire game,” added Brown. “That’s something we’ve not done since the opening games of the season.

“Far too often we’ve been in control of games and then let them slip away from us, so to do that was massive.