Late Tigers fightback is in vain after a sixth defeat

Tom Watkins admitted his NIHL National Division side are low on confidence and once more shot themselves in the foot by falling behind at Humberside on Saturday.

And a slack start to the third period proved costly as Tigers fell three goals behind at 5-2, but a stunning fightback hauled the visitors level to dramatically force overtime, which Telford came out on the wrong side of after Andre Themar’s penalty shot.

Head coach Watkins pointed to ‘costly mistakes’ with his side giving themselves too much to do of late. He did, however, feel the late response showed character and could inspire some confidence.

He said: “Right now we have a group who are low on confidence and key players are making uncharacteristic mistakes at key moments.

“We couldn’t have had a worse start to the third period than conceding a goal then taking a penalty on the next shift and before you know it, we are three goals behind.

“We are too reliant on a few players to create and score and when we are conceding goals like we are at the moment, it’s too big a gap to close.

“We showed some huge character to come back from three goals down in the last five minutes to tie the game. That is something positive we can take into our next game.”

Tigers fell behind early while Liam Bartholomew, called up from the Laidler Division team, was in the penalty box for boarding and Declan Balmer scored for Hull.

The hosts did haul themselves level during the first period, taking advantage of their own power player as Corey Goodison netted with a slap shot from distance.

But the Seahawks remained in control of proceedings and import forward Themar scored for 2-1 in favour of the visitors. Tigers, to their credit, survived a Hull power play with Brodie Jesson hooked for five minutes.

But the home side fell apart at the beginning of period three as Hull made it 3-1 through Themar again, 11 seconds into the restart. Scott McKenzie, available after a suspension was downgraded, struck back to halve the deficit.

The contest was seemingly taken away from Telford with two Hull goals in 17 seconds to make it 5-2, Nathan Salam and Sam Towner on target.

Tigers’ late fightback was commendable. Captain Jason Silverthorn’s deflected effort made it 5-3. With netminder Brad Day out of goal Vladimir Luka made it within one and Fin Howells remarkably struck for 5-5 with just 22 seconds left.

Overtime followed to find a winner and Hull were awarded a penalty shot dispatched by Themar. Tigers were left with just a point.