Midweek defeat exposes concerns over Giants’ recent performances as a Glasgow double-header offers an immediate chance to respond.

Adam Keefe had little interest in dressing up Belfast Giants’ 3-2 defeat to Fife Flyers on Wednesday night. The result was bad enough, but for the Giants coach the greater frustration was that he had seen it coming.

While the win ratio has looked healthy, Keefe’s side had been finding ways to win without always playing particularly well.

On Wednesday night in Kirkcaldy, against opponents they had beaten 6-0 and 5-2 earlier in the season, that habit finally caught up with them.

“The last few games we’ve been getting results, but our performances have been… well, and it caught up with us,” Keefe admitted afterwards.

“It’s a realisation that we’re not good enough to just turn up and play. We have to compete for it, and tonight we weren’t really willing to do it. And it stung us.”

The Giants now face Glasgow Clan twice in three days, visiting Braehead Arena for a league game on Friday before Sunday’s Challenge Cup meeting in Belfast. There could hardly be a more immediate opportunity to show that the message has registered.

Fife were worthy winners. Cole Stewart opened the scoring at 12:52, capitalising on a loose puck to score shorthanded while Belfast had the extra skater.

It was a particularly careless way to fall behind, and there was little thereafter to suggest Keefe’s men were about to take charge.

Mika Partanen doubled the home side’s advantage midway through the second period, before Scott Conway pulled one back on Belfast’s third power play.

When Mike Petizian beat Jake Kupsky from a narrow angle less than three minutes into the final period, the Flyers had restored their two-goal cushion. Morten Jensen scored his first Giants goal with eight minutes remaining, also on the power play, but the equaliser never came.

Jackson Whistle had started in goal before being replaced by Kupsky at the second intermission. At the other end, Blake Pietilä marked his home debut with 23 saves, although Belfast’s failure to score at even strength was as telling as anything the Fife netminder produced.

Keefe was unsparing in his assessment.

“Fife was better in a lot of areas. They out-competed us. We lost every important face-off tonight. Their special teams were better than ours,” he said.

“Obviously, Tim had his team better prepared than I had ours. There’s no excuse.”

Nor was this an entirely isolated performance.

On Sunday, Belfast led Manchester Storm 4-1 deep into the third period, only to concede three times and need a Patrick Guay overtime winner to escape with a 5-4 victory.

Earlier in October, Keefe had bemoaned the odd-man rushes conceded during a 3-1 win in Dundee, while a narrow 1-0 success at Coventry had relied heavily on goalie Jake Kupsky.

The points from those games were welcome. They did not necessarily mean the underlying problems had gone away. Against Fife, a shorthanded concession and another goal following a two-on-one break brought that point home rather painfully.

Glasgow, at least on league form, ought to offer Belfast a chance to respond. The Clan have lost all seven of their opening league games and parted company with coach Mike Sirant on October 12, leaving Steven Birnstill in interim charge.

Yet there is a warning in the recent head-to-head record. Glasgow beat the Giants 4-1 at Braehead on September 27 and pushed them to a shootout there earlier that month.

Belfast answered with a 4-1 home victory last Saturday, but Friday’s trip is no formality.

Sunday brings a different incentive. The Giants remain top of Challenge Cup Group B despite the defeat in Fife, and victory over Glasgow would guarantee first place and direct passage to the semi-finals.

For Keefe, though, the more urgent concern will be his side’s performance. His verdict in Kirkcaldy was that the effort had fallen short. The next two games will show how quickly his players can respond.