Telford Tigers coach Tom Watkins praised his short-handed squad, after they beat Manchester Phoenix 5-2 on Saturday night.
The county men – already missing the injured Matty Davies, Adam Taylor and Danny Rose – lost Doug Clarkson to illness on Friday night.
And with both Jonathan Weaver and Joe Miller suffering injuries during the games, Watkins was happy to see his men clinch victory in Blackpool.
He said: “We had some good chances tonight and we also missed some, but overall I’m pleased with the performance from the guys.
“When you lose that many players, it does affect how you set up for things like powerplays but the others stepped up really well.
“Corey Goodison had a great game and Joe Aston didn’t look out of place at all. They both had good, regular shifts.
“It was a good performance at what is a tough place to play.”
The first period saw Telford once again take an early lead, this time through Phil Hill after just two minutes.
The Tigers has most of the running during that opening session, but they had to wait until 27 minutes to double their advantage through Milan Kolena.
Kolena was on target once again just two minutes later, as Telford made their superior possession count.
Michal Satek added a fourth for the visitors almost straight away, but Manchester hit back just before the end of the period.
The closing session saw the Phoenix reduce Telford’s advantage on 54 minutes, but Tait sealed victory just two minutes later.
Watkins added: “I said during the week about how Milan plays with a lot of grit and he had a good game tonight, even when we switched things around a bit.
“With Sam Gospel in goal, we could ice a third import forward, but there was a good solid spread of scoring throughout the game.”
The Tigers return to action tomorrow night (Sunday) whey they host Swindon Wildcats at Telford Ice Rink (6pm). For tickets go to www.tigershockeyuk.com.
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