BLACKBURN Hawks head coach Dan MacKriel is warning his title chasing side against complacency this weekend as they face the league's bottom side twice in just over 24 hours.

The Hawks bounced back from two defeats in two weeks to claim four points last weekend, winning 7-1 at Telford Tigers and 13-2 at home to Sheffield Spartans.

That maintained their five point cushion over Whitley Warriors at the top of the Moralee Conference, although the Warriors have a game in hand.

And the Hawks should make it another perfect weekend as they travel to Sheffield Senators today (4.30pm), before welcoming the same opponents to the Blackburn Ice Arena tomorrow (5.45pm).

The Senators have lost all of their 22 league games so far this season, but MacKriel knows his side must remain focused.

"If you go into games complacent then you're looking for trouble," he said.

"I think a couple of teams have gone to play Sheffield recently and have taken a complacent approach and they've ended up having a right battle with them.

"Fair play to Sheffield they go in every game and they work hard, so we can't afford to slip up, we've got to turn up the work ethic and be smart and keep it simple with the right attitude."

Although double header weekends are a regular occurrence, this is the first time this season that the Hawks have faced the same opponents on a Saturday and Sunday.

"It's not unusual in hockey, although it's not ideal," said MacKriel.

"Things can spill over but I don't think it will happen this weekend, but that's what tends to happen in hockey, if there's any trouble on Saturday it can spill over to the Sunday.

"We've reduced our penalty minutes this year considerably so I'm quite keen that we stay out of any trouble."

MacKriel will be happy if his side can reproduce the form they showed last weekend to steady the ship after recent defeats to Solway Sharks and Solihull Barons.

"It was a big weekend, it was exactly what we wanted," said the Hawks chief.

"Performance wise it was up there, it was a good tempo, we didn't take anything for granted, we're starting to learn that now, and we were very, very clinical in front of goal. That was pleasing, but more so at the other end, we were defending a lot better as a unit than we have been doing.

"It was a positive step in the right direction.

"I was massively pleased with the way the lads reacted, they've done everything that me and Daniel Brittle have asked of them.

"We've got more gears to go through. We're not going to rest on those performances, we can still play even better, and that's what we need to do, we need to up our game to make sure we're getting maximum points every week."

And there was more good news on Thursday as Ollie Lomax returned to practice for the first time since suffering a broken wrist early in December.

"It's going to be a few weeks to get back to full fitness but he'll be a welcome addition back, he was playing extremely well before his injury," said MacKriel.