Paisley Pirates return to SNL action on Sunday as they face-off against Kilmarnock Storm.

Pirates currently lie fifth in table, six points behind leaders Kirkcaldy Kestrels, but with games in hand on the all teams above they remain well-placed to mount a serious title challenge.

Player/Coach Ian Turley said: “It’ll be good to get back into action after a couple of weeks off. We’ve got a busy spell of games coming up, every one of them important, starting with the match against the Storm.

“They’ve struggled a bit this season and lost a whole lot of players early on, but sometimes adversity brings a team closer together, so we won’t prepare any differently.

Their coach, Myles Watson, is well known to Pirates’ fans as he skippered the last Paisley side to win the Scottish Cup in 2005, and he’s brought along a whole bunch of youngsters who are getting regular ice time, which will speed up their development no end.

“They’re going to break their duck against someone this season, so we’ll just have to make sure it’s not against us!”

Pirates have a busy January scheduled, with games against North Ayrshire Wild, Edinburgh Capitals SNL and Moray Typhoons coming up, but Turley refuses to look beyond the Kilmarnock fixture.

“It’s a well-known cliché, but we’ll be taking one game at a time,” said Turley. “It’s the only way to approach matches, so we’ll look to take care of business against Killie before we look ahead to the next match.”

WEEKEND FIXTURES

Saturday

Dundee Comets v Aberdeen Lynx
Kilmarnock Storm v North Ayrshire Wild

Sunday

Paisley Pirates v Kilmarnock Storm
Solway Sharks SNL v Kirkcaldy Kestrels