Tom Watkins hails his depleted Telford Tigers despite defeat
Head coach Tom Watkins praised the attitude of his depleted Telford Tigers side after they fell to a 6-3 defeat at Leeds Knights.
Tigers headed to Yorkshire without Jack Hopkins, Fin Howells and Sam Watkins after they received call-ups to the Great Britain under-20 squad. Watkins was also without injured trio Ricky Plant, Jack Watkins and Ross Connolly.
In what proved to be an uneventful first period, Tigers got themselves in front through Scott McKenzie. But Kieran Brown, Cole Shudra and Jordan Fisher then put Leeds 3-1 up.
Tigers saw McKinney ejected in the third period for elbowing. But with 10 minutes left, Austin Mitchell-King halved their deficit. And McKenzie then hauled them level.
Leeds got themselves back ahead just a minute after that equaliser through Robert Streetly.
Telford were then handed a great chance to get back into the game with a power play after Brown was called for cross checking.
A tired power play unit could not score and allowed Shudra to net a break away goal to put the game beyond Tigers. Day was then pulled from the goal for the final thirty seconds, allowing Leeds to score in an empty net goal via Ben Solder.
“I was gutted to lose the game” Watkins said. “The whole team put a lot in and to come away without anything hurts after the effort and commitment we played with.
“Everyone came onto the team bus nursing some injury.
“We battled really hard and got ourselves back into it despite having six players out of the line up.
“Most teams wouldn’t be able to compete, but we stepped up and were very competitive.”
