“We can hold our heads high tonight” – that was the reaction of Tigers coach Tom Watkins, following his side’s 4-1 defeat to Peterborough Phantoms on Sunday evening.
The county men rounded off a tough week with a hard-nosed performance in Peterborough, although their lead over Milton Keynes at the top of the EPL now stands at just four points.
Photo credit Tom Scott
Telford failed to recover from an early Phantoms strike at Bretton Road, despite having the better of the scoring opportunities for much of the game.
And Watkins praised his players’ efforts against a tough Peterborough line-up.
He said: “The guys were excellent and professional to the core. It means a lot to me and they make my job easy, to be honest. I haven’t had to motivate anyone to get up and play, as they’ve done all that by themselves.
“I think as a team that plays hockey, we were a way better team. Unfortunately we didn’t get the result. Peterborough are defensively very strong and make it difficult, but we can hold our heads high tonight.
“I can’t question our work ethic, our desire, our commitment to the team. It wasn’t our best performance, and this is always a tough place to come and play.”
The first period saw Telford enjoy the majority of possession, although they fell behind to an early goal from Peterborough’s Wahebe Darge.
The Australian took advantage of a loose puck in front of the Tigers goal to score on the powerplay after just three minutes.
The visitors pressed for an equaliser throughout the rest of the opening session, and were rewarded with their first goal of the night on 15 minutes.
A Corey Mcewen pass from the edge of the Phantoms attacking zone gave Doug Clarkson a chance to slot past netminder Janis Auzins.
The second period was more free-flowing, with the Tigers once again having the better of the scoring chances.
But Auzins produced a string of fine saves to deny the visitors, and it was the Phantoms who took the lead on 38 minutes.
Petr Stepanek scored with a penalty shot, following a melee in the Tigers goalmouth.
Watkins added: “I thought the second was our best period tonight. The third period seemed to be quite scrappy, and our forecheck was good in the second.
“We had a lot of possession, although I would have liked to see us get more bodies to the front of the net.”
Telford were once again on top for much of the final period, but they couldn’t prevent Peterborough from opening a two-goal advantage on 52 minutes.
Petr Stepanek was on hand to capitalise on a defensive mix-up and score the hosts’ third goal of the night.
The Tigers swapped netminder Ondrej Raszka for an extra attacker in the closing stages, but the Phantoms sealed victory with a late open-net strike.
“In the third period we were probably a little bit behind the eight ball,” Watkins said.
“Peterborough are very good at locking down the neutral zone and making it tough to get any real quality.
“When you’re two down, you’ve got to try and get one back, and I thought there for a second we were going to have it, with a bit of a scramble.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.