RYAN FINNERTY has admitted the last few months have been the most challenging of his six-year coaching career as Braehead Clan struggle for form.

The Canadian made the admission as Clan take on Manchester Storm tonight desperate to capture some sort of consistency going into the Elite League home straight.

Thirty-four games into the campaign and the Glasgow side sit sixth in the standings having won just 15 games.

"For me, in six years of coaching, it's been by far the toughest period," said Finnerty.

"It's just trying to find that consistency in the group and moving parts around to find it.

"It's been tough and a challenge. We have a great group of guys, it's just about getting them to play as one.

"That one goal is to start winning. That takes 21 guys doing their bit and playing their part whether that's blocking the shot or getting to the net.

"It's the little things we don't do consistently enough. People that do that win.

"We've not done it enough to build that winning habit, but we have a good group of guys who want to win.

"We need to find a way to instil that confidence in the room and start building those winning habits."

Clan are currently on a winning loss of four games, with last weekend's double defeats at home to Edinburgh and away to Manchester hurting badly.

Now the team from Altrincham come up to Clyde side and Finnerty knows some sort of traction must be found quickly if his team's recent slide is to stop.

"After the last weekend we had was a pretty low point of our season," said Finnerty, whose side travel south to face the Sheffield Steelers on Saturday night.

"Coming off such a good effort the previous weekend we got some bodies back on the line and we didn't compete with any passion. We didn't execute and dropped four big points in our conference.

"Obviously there is a lot of negativity around right now. It's been a long week but we are still fighting with injuries and trying to get whoever is healthy back competing.

"It's about competing for every inch on the ice. If we do that then we'll be fine."

Meanwhile, Clan have confirmed Cody Carlson will undergo an operation to fix a broken nose.