Tigers win, but coach labels them as “awful”

Telford Tigers’ performance in their 3-1 win over Bracknell Bees on Saturday night has been labelled as “awful” by head coach Tom Watkins.

A tightly-fought evening saw The Tigers score early on against Bracknell, before struggling to open a meaningful lead during the middle session.

Victory means Telford are again within striking distance of fourth place in the EPL table, although Watkins was disappointed with his side’s performance against the league’s bottom side.

He said: “It was awful and you can’t leave a team in a game like we did tonight. In the second period we created 16 or 17 goalscoring chances and only once put the puck in the net.

“Then in the third, we started making a lot of selfish plays through the neutral zone and gave them a chance to come back at us. I don’t understand that mentality.

“We turned pucks over and tried to beat two or three guys, and that has to stop. The only way we’ll win hockey games is by putting pucks in low and defending with five guys.”

Captain Jason Silverthorn was on target with that early goal after just eight minutes, before Bracknell equalised at the halfway point of the game.

Silverthorn again scored just moments later, but it wasn’t until 43 minutes that the hosts recorded their third goal of the game, again thanks to Silverthorn.

Watkins added: “I changed things around to get balance across all three lines. We have loaded everyone onto two lines over the last few weeks and you end up overplaying guys.

“I liked the look of Macaulay up with Phil Hill and Jason tonight, and I thought he played a great game. He was really mature and one of our younger players.

“He back pressured really hard, he turned pucks back the other way and he should have had a couple of goals. He was doing the little things well.

“But the guys shouldn’t be learning off a 19-year-old.”