Tom Watkins salutes Telford Tigers' improvement
Telford Tigers coach Tom Watkins has hailed his side's performances since Christmas as a "massive achievement" after they climbed to the top of the EPL standings for the second half of the season.
Newly-published league tables show the Tigers three points clear of their closest challengers over the last 22 games, with just two matches left to play.
That position is made even more remarkable by Telford's struggles in the early part of the campaign – they were bottom as recently as December 15th.
A run of nine consecutive wins did much to lift the county men away from last place – and Watkins expects his side to continue in that rich vein of form.
He said: "We have come such a long way and to get to the play-offs has been a massive achievement for all the guys.
"When you look back to December we were a long way off the pace, so the whole squad has done a tremendous job in catching up.
"We have pushed the bigger sides back and it is great to see where we are now."
Victories over Slough Jets on Saturday and Sunday ensured Telford remain on course to be the form side of the play-offs at the end of this month.
The Tigers supremo is, however, determined to keep expectations realistic as the countdown to the play-offs begins.
Watkins added: "We are really looking forward to playing Guildford and Manchester next weekend, so we need to take it one game at a time.
"We are in the first round of the play-offs, but we want to make it through to the final four in Coventry.
"It is likely that we will either play Guildford or Milton Keynes in the quarter-finals, so we we have got to be prepared well."
