Milton Keynes Lightning go into one of the most important weekends of their season so far with the twin goals of securing a place in the EPL cup semi-finals and beating two teams they've yet to overcome - Sheffield Steeldogs and Peterborough Phantoms.

Andre Payette’s Sheffield Steeldogs come to the Thunderdome this Saturday sitting just above Lightning in the English Premier League table, but Nick Poole’s team have a point to prove after losing to the Yorkshire side twice this season at iceSheffield.  Lightning will have to deal with the joint pressures of  the attacking threat posed by Janis Ozolins and Greg Wood, and the unsettling efforts of tough-tackling agitator Payette.  Ozolins and Wood both scored in the Steeldogs’ shock 4-1 defeat of Lightning last weekend.  Despite losing to league underdogs Peterborough Phantoms and Bracknell Bees recently, Payette's team has enjoyed several high-scoring games - scoring six past Bracknell and seven past Telford - and has picked up points from some narrowly-won fixtures where they have pushed their opposition all the way.

On Sunday Lightning travel to Cambridgeshire to face local rivals Peterborough with the goal of restoring local pride for their supporters.  Lightning reclaimed the Ashes in the two sides’ annual pre-season challenge matches in August, but when the Phantoms came to the Thunderdome at Hallow’een, it was the home side who seemed spooked and fell to a 1-4 loss.

Coach Poole says his side are determined to put some recent shows of inconsistent form behind them and extract the maximum possible points to help their push for league and Cup silverware.  “Ozolins is in great form for Sheffield and they’re a stronger team than last season, as they showed us last weekend - they didn't have a great time last season, but this year they're a solid, hard-working unit and nobody can say it's "only" Sheffield any more - or "only" any other team, everyone has improved.

"We had fantastic momentum early on in the season and nobody’s more disappointed than us that one or two results haven’t been what we’ve wanted since then.   But Saturday we'll have home advantage and we intend to use it. By beating Telford 6-1 on Sunday we showed we can get straight back to winning - now we want to regain the momentum we had at the start of the season and take a place in the cup semi finals.

"This is a huge weekend for us - our fans have been fantastic all season, and it would be awesome to have a really big crowd in backing us on Saturday night. We hear the noise they make even from the dressing room and it really gets us charged up.  And we'd love to see and hear our supporters in Peterborough on Sunday - this time we want to send them home smiling".

Lightning face-off against Sheffield Steeldogs at 7pm on Saturday 26 November at the Thunderdome, and against Peterborough Phantoms in Peterborough at 5.30pm on Sunday