Blais blames bad luck as Tigers slip

Assistant coach Greg Blais has refused to blame his players after Telford Tigers missed out on the chance to make up ground in the EPL play-off chase with defeats to Peterborough and Bracknell.

Blais joined forces with Mark Hazelhurst to make up for the absence of head coach Tom Watkins, who is on GB under-20s duty in Germany with a number of local players.

A depleted Telford line-up – bolstered by players from Coventry's ENL side – suffered a narrow 4-2 defeat to Peterborough Phantoms on Saturday, before a 3-1 loss to Bracknell Bees on Sunday.

Both defeats were only confirmed in the final few moments as the Tigers replaced their netminder with an extra forward in an effort to claim a late equaliser.

And Blais believes his side were unlucky not to claim at least a point from the weekend.

He said: "We put everything into both games and at the end it was just bad luck. We pulled our netminder on Saturday to make it six on four and we thought we could capitalise, but they did instead.

"That sort of thing happens in hockey and I am sure next week we will come out flying, get a couple of points and make the fans proud.

"We made them proud this weekend, but as I said beforehand, we didn't quite know what to expect with the new faces, but they played well and talked as a team."

Scott McKenzie and Joe Henry were the scorers for Telford on Saturday, with McKenzie again on the scoresheet against Bracknell.

The weekend's losses have extended the gap at the bottom of the English Premier League standings, with Peterborough now two points ahead of Telford and eighth-placed Bracknell a further eight points clear.

But Blais is taking little notice of the league table.

He added: "All the team worked hard and I am proud of everyone in the locker room.

"Everybody was positive and nobody is down after the game.

"We knew we would struggle with a lot of good guys out, and they are huge for us, but a lot of the young kids stepped up this weekend.

"The veterans did as well, so I am proud of everyone in the locker room."

Sunday's game saw Telford outshoot the visitors by 41 shots to 29 as they searched desperately for an equaliser during the closing stages.

And that intensity from the Tigers left Bracknell coach Gareth Cox glad to emerge from the game with two points.

He said: "Telford worked hard and worked their socks off all night and they probably felt that they outworked us.

"But we got the job done early on, stuck to our gameplan and it worked out for us."

Telford must now regroup for another set of home games next weekend, with Peterborough the visitors again on Saturday, before a clash with Swindon Wildcats on Sunday.