Tom Watkins: Telford Tigers dropping too many points at home

Sunday’s loss to Peterborough Phantoms came via a penalty shootout – meaning the table-topping Tigers still picked up a NIHL National League point. But Watkins feels his side should have held on to the 1-0 advantage given to them by captain Jason Silverthorn.

“I am disappointed that we didn’t pick up two points after leading the game for so long, then having a power play in overtime which was a great opportunity for us to win the game,” he said. “A point is a step forward but we need to win our home games and have dropped five points at home in recent weeks.

“Sunday was a grind – it was tough to create many chances, both teams doing a good job defensively with both teams almost cancelling each other out at times.

“But leading by a goal, I felt we should have taken advantage of some of the chances to give ourselves a cushion.”

The Tigers had secured a terrific win at Leeds Knights just 24 hours earlier – their third straight victory on the road.

For the visit of Peterborough, though, they were missing Jack Watkins, Fin Howells and Ross Connolly from the line-up.

The first period ended goalless as both teams struggled to create any clear opportunities.

Tigers had the best of the chances with Bayley Harewood and Austin Mitchell-King both being denied on breakaways by Jordan Marr in the Phantoms’ goal. Vladimir Luka hit a hat-trick in the previous game and went close to scoring with a brilliant move to create space and then sent a wrist shot off the crossbar, but Tigers finally took the lead in the 25th minute.

Jake Price sent a pass from the Peterborough blue line towards goal where Jason Silverthorn was perfectly placed to deflect the puck past Marr to open the scoring.

Telford continued to pressure the Phantoms’ goal with Mitchell-King going close again before a Danny Rose breakaway was stopped by Marr. Brad Day was also called on to make a point-blank save from Petr Stepanek, while the final action of the period saw Tigers’ Jonathan Weaver hit the post.

Peterborough pushed hard for the equaliser in the third period and Day had to pull off a couple of big saves to keep Tigers ahead.

However, eventually the Phantoms’ pressure paid off when Nathan Salem hit a low shot past Day with just three minutes left on the clock.

Tigers had the better of the five minutes of overtime with Mitchell-King going close and Luka hitting the post then seeing his deflected shot agonisingly miss by inches.

There was nothing to separate them through the shootout either until Marr saved from Scott McKenzie in sudden death to hand the win to the visitors.

Despite the Tigers’ loss of form at home, previous nearest rivals Swindon Wildcats have lost their last four to slip to third, eight points behind the Tigers. Milton Keynes Lightning moved into second with victory on Sunday, seven points back from Telford.