Basingstoke Bison coach Ryan Aldridge believes his team can turn their season around, despite beginning the campaign with a woeful 10-game losing streak.

Weekend defeats by Coventry and Sheffield leave the Bison bottom of the league with just two points, earned in overtime defeats, to their name.

"I'm more impressed with the spirit this weekend," Aldridge told the BBC.

But the Bison coach, 30, says he will still make changes to the roster if results do not quickly improve.

"I can see what the team's made of, [but] I don't think the team we have right now will be the team that will finish the season," he admitted.

"We still make too many mistakes in the wrong areas and if I have to change it, I have to change it. That's my job, right?"

Aldridge's team suffered short-handed on several occasions during Saturday's 4-1 defeat at home to the Blaze, and the former Bracknell star said he had trouble understanding the approach officials were taking to matches.

"I don't even want to talk about penalties right now. Every game I feel like it's so one-sided. What we're doing wrong, I don't know.

"We've just got to battle through and learn to keep our sticks down."

Import forward Brad Cruikshank, forced to miss key games through suspension, backed his coach's view on the officiating of Elite League games.

"We're not quite sure what's going on," said the Canadian.

"It seems that they're calling 'zero tolerance', but we were told there was no zero tolerance any more. I don't know if it's a lack of communication but it's been frustrating and everybody needs to figure out what's going on.

"Different refs ref different games, and we have to learn which refs allow you to get away with what.

"We're just not learning that right now and we need to figure it out pretty quickly, or it'll really hurt our chances."

Meanwhile, Cruikshank admitted that rushing imports like new signing Matt Miller into the country, in a bid to boost Basingstoke's threadbare roster, had created a "ridiculous" situation, but praised his compatriot for a "fast, hitting" debut.

Miller only flew into the UK on Saturday morning but still took to the ice for that evening's match against Coventry, and scored his first goal for the Bison in Sunday's 6-2 defeat in Sheffield.

However, fellow import and Bison goaltender Kevin Reiter insisted that, despite results and coach Aldridge's threat to bring in new faces, the players remained in good spirits.

"All the guys are pretty upbeat, we just need to come out with a full line-up. Once we get healthy we're going to be a team to reckon with," said Reiter.

"We need to get on the same page, have a full week of practice, and we'll be fine."