Tom Watkins refused to be satisfied with The Tigers first home league win of the season, despite watching them beat Bracknell Bees 3-2 on Sunday.
A dramatic evening at Telford Ice Rink saw Watkins’ men snatch a late winner against their Red Hockey stablemates, after taking a third-minute lead.
The victory was Telford’s first league success since September 19th, and will be treated as a stern warning to the rest of the English Premier League.
Watkins, however, believes his side could – and should – have shown more confidence against the Bees.
He said: “I said to the guys during the second period break that we needed to win ugly and that is what we did. But as a whole, I thought our performance was poor.
“We conceded a lot of turnovers, made some errors, and that comes down to players feeling nervous. They’re still making nervous mistakes and bad decisions.
“I would expect us to be better as a group. We work extremely hard during the week in training and I think our fitness needs to be a lot stronger.”
Returning skipper Jason Silverthorn was on target for Telford after just three minutes on Sunday, giving his side an early lead.
The visitors hit back on 13 minutes, but the hosts again secured an advantage in the second session – this time through Max Birbraer.
Bracknell, however, drew level at the end of the period, setting up a mouth-watering final 20 minutes.
The game looked to be heading into overtime, before Joe Miller scored for The Tigers with just 90 seconds remaining.
Watkins added: “It was nice to get two points at home and it has been a long time coming. Bracknell work hard and play a physical game, but also keep it simple.
“They get the puck into the corners well and have a few imports who can win games for them.
“It was great to see Sam Gospel win us the game tonight. That is what we need our goalies to do, when we’re having a tough time in front of the net.”
On Saturday night, meanwhile, the second period proved disastrous for Telford, following a single goal from Basingstoke at the start of the game.
The hosts struck five times in that second session, despite Tigers goals from Phil Hill and Peter Szabo.
Dan Davies and Macaulay Heywood were on target in the third period – but they were unable to inspire a further fightback.
“I was pretty direct with the guys at the end of the first period and I expected a response,” Watkins said.
“I got the complete opposite. We made bad decisions and put ourselves in a poor position. The biggest issue is that we didn’t convert our five on three chances.
“The guys have got to make sure they put the puck in the back of the net. It is tough to win a game if we don’t make the most of our scoring opportunities.”
Telford Tigers are back in action next weekend, when they travel to face Guildford Flames on Saturday, before the visit of Swindon Wildcats on Sunday.
NIHL:
Tigers NIHL coach Jason Parry hailed the performance of his youngsters in Sunday’s 3-2 win over Moralee Conference high-fliers Billingham Stars.
Telford took an early lead on Teesside and despite being pegged back in the second session, they did enough to secure their second win of the league season.
Parry, whose pre-game plans were hit by the absences of key players Karol Jets and Daniel Croft, was delighted with the reaction from his squad.
He said: “I’m really pleased with how we played against Billingham, especially after losing Karol and Daniel. The younger guys stepped up and played with experience.
“Our best players really shone tonight. Denis Bell was great in goal and Adam Taylor chipped in to score twice. Callum Bowley was our captain and had a really solid game.”
Taylor was on target with two goals in Billingham, while Telford’s third came from Bowley.
Parry added: “We’ve got a really good set of guys here. The most pleasing thing was to see our fringe guys come in and do a great job.
“Billingham is a hard place to go to, but the guys stood up for each other and played with a lot of confidence. We’ve always said we will worry about ourselves, and not about the other team.”
The Tigers NIHL are back in action next weekend, when they travel to face Sutton Sting on Saturday night.
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