Tom Watkins so proud of his battling Telford Tigers
Tom Watkins declared he was really proud of his Telford Tigers – despite suffering a second consecutive defeat on Sunday night.
The Tigers – missing several players through injury and Great Britain Under-20 call-ups – had to ice several second-team players, as well as head coach Watkins himself.
That led to a 3-2 defeat against NIHL National League leaders Swindon Wildcats, putting Telford fourth – now eight points off the pace, having also crashed to a 6-3 defeat against Leeds Knights on Saturday night. But Watkins said: “I’m really proud of the team, all the players stepped up and it was similar to the Leeds game the night before, we played with a huge amount of spirit and heart.
“It’s tough to lose, we don’t like it but sometimes you have to look at the bigger picture and hold your hands up and say we gave it everything we had.
“Another night it’s a different result and considering the seven guys we had out of the line-up, I think we were very close to getting a point and taking it to overtime.” Swindon – who had lost just one of their previous eight games – were 3-0 up in the third period, with Andy McKinney having been ejected from the game for fighting.
But the Tigers never gave up and managed to get on the scoresheet through Brodie Jesson and Brandon Anderton, with fans throwing teddies on to the ice as part of the annual Telford Tigers Teddy Bear Toss, with all teddies donated to the Princess Royal Hospital Children’s Ward.
